The Life of Harry Potter and Hermione's part in it
by broomstick flyer
Summary: Hermione recieves a birthday gift from an old man that changes her and Harry's world completely. another of the older stories written a while ago, I hope you enjoy it. r & r H/Hr
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

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The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

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Part one

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"Hermione! Hermione Granger, could I have a word with you?" the old man asked the ten year old girl with bushy brown hair and rather large front teeth, as she walked toward the open school gates. Last one in an exodus of rowdy children and parents all heading home for their homes and evening tea.

Hermione looked at the ancient old man standing at the school gate, dressed in a long silver grey smock like thing that reached right down to the floor he reminded her of pictures of Merlin from the stories of King Arthur and the round table. In fact if Merlin had not been a myth, Hermione Granger thought, she may well have believed she was looking at him right now.

She could feel some odd connection to him. A kind of tingle like electricity when it made the hair stick out, and she could see something in the old mans twinkling bespeckled green eyes, it was a look similar to the sorrowful look her dad had when he looked at mum if he had somehow upset her, and yet it was more wistful, deeper in some sad unfathomable way.

"I'm sorry sir but I'm not allowed to talk to strangers," she told him as she wisely remembered her parents warning about strangers, she edged away from him a little.

"Yes I had thought about that, you always were the cautious and clever one, right from the first day we met," the old man said confusing her.

"I never met you before, I'm going to shout my dad," Hermione said stepping back inside the gates.

"If you look over there you will see that your mother Helen is waiting for you just as she always does," the old man said smiling "so you call your mother over, and we will talk on the way to your house Ok," the old man said as he gave her a friendly grin.

Helen Granger watched her daughter and wondered why her little girl was waiting at the gate and not running to meet her as she normally did.  
Getting a little impatient Helen walked around to the gate way and called to Hermione as she approached.

"My mums here now," Hermione said to the old man her fear dissipating a little.

"Yes, yes, you know I always did like your mum, just like your dad, she has a very open mind," the old man chuckled "so shall we go?"

Helen stood and held out her hand to Hermione and asked as Hermione took hold "Is there something wrong dear, you look a little pale."

Hermione watched as the old man fell in step with her and her mother as they walked toward the family car; she could not believe that her mum said nothing to the oddly dressed, long bearded, be-speckled stranger walking with them.

"Er, no not really," Hermione answered.

Reaching the car Hermione looked up at where just a moment ago the old man had been standing, she then looked around at the surrounding street but the old man was no where to be seen. Slightly puzzled about where he had gone, Hermione turned her attention back to the car as she heard the remote locking mechanism whir and the lights gave a flash that was accompanied by a small beep.

Still puzzled by the old mans sudden disappearance and what had happened to him, she reached out and opened the car door, as she turned her mind back to the task in hand, which was climbing into the car back seat, she was surprised to see the old man already sitting in the car waiting, her mother seemed oblivious to his being there. "Don't forget to belt up," the old man chuckled.

As the car pulled out into the traffic heading for the small village where they lived the old man began speaking. Hermione was not really listening at first as she tried to figure it all out, and she also wondered why her mum had said nothing.

"Mum did you know there's an old man in the car with us?" she asked feeling a little foolish for asking such a silly question.

"Has he got a curly white beard and a red suit?" Helen chuckled as she looked at Hermione through the rear view mirror.

Hermione was about to make another comment when the old man spoke "She can't see or hear me, it's an anti Muggle charm, anyway I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes. First I should wish you a happy birthday! I have a package for you; it contains your birthday card, a book, a cloak, and a wand. Before I give it to you I must ask you to promise not to touch the wand until you have read the first few pages of the book."

Even though she was scared, shaking a little as well, Hermione was not going to show her fear to a total stranger, besides the promise of another book to read peaked her curiosity. She decided to play along with this new figment of her imagination, which he obviously was if her mum could not see him or hear him.

"I promise," she said crossing her fingers.

"No Hermione, I want a real promise, it's important, very important, and since when did you start to cross your fingers and tell lies?" the old man said reprovingly.

"I do not tell lies," Hermione said rather indignantly.

"I know dear," her mother said from the front seat "you really do have Santa sitting in the back with you." She then chuckled.

"Sorry, I promise," Hermione said spreading her fingers on her lap.

"That's ok sweety," mum replied smiling.

"Good, now remember to read the first part of the book first," the old man said as he slipped an envelope and parcel to her.

Hermione looked down at the parcel just as the car stopped for some traffic lights, when she looked up she was alone on the back seat, the birthday card and parcel still resting in her lap.

At home having hung up her coat, Hermione with the neatly wrapped package tucked under her arm, collected her small pile of birthday cards from the hall table and then went straight up the stairs to her bed room.  
She placed the parcel along side her birthday cards on to her desk, and then sat on her bed just staring at the parcel for a long time. She had some how expected it to vanish just as the old man had vanished; she was almost convinced that the old man could not have been real. Maybe she had been dreaming, maybe this was just another one of the odd, unexplainable things that happened around her.

It was the last thought that made her wonder just what it was that could cause the school bully to fall back on his fat behind when he tried to hit her. Or what happened the day her snotty cousin visited and went home with blue hair. When she began to think about it quite a lot of strange things happened if she was scared or angry, sometimes even when she was really happy, though that was not very often since she started school.

School was a lonely unpleasant place where being bullied and picked on all the time was the normal daily routine when you have large front teeth, and an unquenchable desire for knowledge.

Looking again at the parcel that had remained just where she placed it, she took a deep breath and went to sit at her desk. Slowly she opened the brown paper wrapping just as she always did, careful not to rip it and then folding it up neatly she placed the plain brown wrapping paper in a draw of the desk.

Opening a rather nice wooden box she found a black leather bound, rather expensive looking book sitting on top of a silvery coloured piece of material, poking out from under the material was a thin round piece of polished wood.

Hermione Jane Granger could no more resist reading a book than king Canute could hold back the tide, she knew some how that the old man had known about her love of reading. Slowly she lifted the book from the box and noticing that the pages were not simple paper, but that they were all made of fine parchment. She did not notice that now she held the book in her hands it was far to big to fit in the small box. Eagerly she opened it at the first page; and she began to read the first few hand written words.

_'Harry James Potter, his life, and your part in it'._

Dear sweet Hermione if you ever get to read this then I will have done what even in the world of magic is thought to be the impossible. Not to mention highly illegal to even attempt.  
I know that you are not like other ten year old girls, this is why I chose your tenth birthday to give this to you, I know that even at ten years old you are really very mature for your age; you are also one of the cleverest people I will ever meet in all my 186 years.

I have spent a long time working out just what I should tell you, in fact this note that you are now reading was the very last entry. After 116 years of careful thought and work the book is finally finished and all my calculations are complete, thanks mainly to the work you did before…

Hermione wondered who could have written such an elaborate joke and why? Was it just another one of the tricks by the snotty nosed girls in her class at school? Or maybe it was a fiction novel; she much preferred to read factual books. But then it was hand written with her name clearly written on the first line. She knew the book had been written for her personally. She glanced at the thickness and thought that someone had gone through a lot of trouble and expense to hand write an entire book just for a joke. Still she decided she should read it to see what it was about before coming to any conclusions, turning her thoughts back to the book she read on.

_I suppose you are still at the sceptical stage right about now, I used to love to see you when you were trying to find a rational explanation for things; I found it highly amusing but very endearing, it was one of the reasons I fell in love with you, the fact that we lived in a world of magic and yet you still thought in that logical way of yours._

Now I don't want you to take this next part the wrong way, it is not meant as an insult.

You Hermione are a witch! And no I do not mean one of those green skinned ugly women of the fairy tales, the ones with huge warts on their nose.  
I mean a real magical witch. One who will grow from a plain Jane to be a very, very beautiful woman. To prove this to you I have written the first spell for you to use on the next page. Once you are confident you can perform the spell correctly use it on your self in order for you to prove the truth of what I am going to be telling you with in this book.

Please study the incantation carefully and find some thing, a twig or stick to practice the wand movements, be quite sure you can do this part correctly before you use the wand from the box.

Hermione looked sceptically down at the wand nestled at the bottom of the box, "As if," she sniffed sticking her nose in the air. Turning back to the book she read on.

'_I suppose you have just given the box one of those famous looks of yours or maybe you stuck your nose up and huffed. I truly wish I could be there to witness your first introduction into the world of real magic. Poor old McGonagall is going to get the shock of her life, but more about her later.  
To begin proving this magic does exist, and to give you a little incentive to learn the first spell, I have placed my cloak in the box for you. If you take the cloak and stand in front of your mirror when you put it on, I think you will not only begin to believe me but you might even be amazed at what happens, I know I was.'_

The last few lines had caught Hermione's attention, it seemed the writer really did know her, how else would they know about the disdainful look she had just given the box, it was almost as though the writer knew how she was thinking.

She put the book down and picked up the cloak from the box, it felt oddly silky and soft, some how it also felt rather like warm water. She stared at it for a few moments watching it as it shimmered in a way she had never seen before.  
Taking the cloak she walked over to her wardrobe and opened the door revealing a full length mirror, she studied her self in the mirror for a moment unable to believe that the girl who's reflection looked back at her was starting to hope that magic was indeed real, wanted to really be a witch able to do magic, it would explain so many things.

Carefully handling the gossamer silk like cloak, she took hold of it at the shoulders and with a rather elegant swish she wrapped it around her self.  
Standing there in front of the mirror Hermione felt more than amazed, she stood staring, her mouth hung open and her eyes were wide as she looked at her head floating in the air, her body totally invisible.

Still staring disbelievingly at her reflection she pulled the cloak up and covered her head, she could see from the mirror that she was now totally invisible and yet she felt her body unchanged under the now see through cloak.

The change of mind she had was instant, she did not even bother to close the wardrobe door as she normally would before rushing back to her desk and sitting down to read more about the world of magic.  
It was only as she tried to pick up the book that she remembered she was still wrapped in the amazing cloak, she stood just for a few seconds to pull it quickly from around her self and to place it on the back of her chair, before she sat back down and began to read once again.

_'So I am thinking that you by now will have tried my cloak and accepted that magic is real, odd that I should use the cloak to prove things to you when you were the one who wanted me to give it back to Dumbledore (more about him later). I can only say that I am quite happy that that occasion was one of the few times I did not listen to your advice. Not listening to you on an occasion in our fifth year has been something I have deeply regretted every single day since._  
Hermione was a little puzzled by the constant reference to things she did or said but she was slowly coming to a conclusion. She studied the small drawing just below the last sentence, decided that she would indeed need something to practice with so she closed the book and placed it safely in the bottom draw of her dresser, covering it with her clean underwear.

Now for the spell I promised, you once told me about just how embarrassed and upset you were as a child, how you hid away to cry when your peers made fun of your teeth. I also know that your parents, both of whom I liked a lot, did not want you to have your teeth altered by magic. Now I know that your parents are very loving people, but I do think that making you suffer through your childhood, to be called names etc, just to keep the dentist in them happy was rather cruel, even for dentists, it may well be unintentional cruelty but the way I feel about you it makes me want to scream at them for their one blind spot.

Something you should also know, there is a ministry of magic and they can detect when an underage witch or wizard use their wand outside Hogwarts school. It is illegal for anyone underage to perform magic unless in desperate and life threatening circumstances. The wand I have given to you how ever is the same wand you bought one day 175 years ago, and the trace charm that the ministry had placed on it has been removed for many, many years. No one will ever know you used it, unless you perform accidental magic which most children do occasionally as they grow up, or use it where you can be seen by Muggles (That's the name we call non magical people), hopefully though as you learn from this book you will no longer have the accidental magic problem.

Anyway onto the spell, remember you must practice it and make sure you have it all correct before you try to do it for real, actually it is one of the more simple spells and charms that you will be learning from this book, once you have done the spell and corrected your teeth, I will then move on to tell you about the life of Harry Potter, how you fit in to the story and why I have worked so hard to get this book to you.

So the actual spell is quite simple, you just point your wand at your front teeth and say 'macero lente incisors correcto' when your teeth reach the size you are happy with you say 'finite'.

I have drawn you a diagram of the wand movements required 'so study and practice before you cast', (that's what you always told me).

An hour later having eaten with her parents in the kitchen, she walked out into the back garden to look for a small stick. As soon as she was back in her bedroom she decided she would work on the spell to correct her teeth before reading any more from the fascinating book, the book she now believed may well have come from the future.

She practiced the wand movement for two hours before she was confident enough to try the spell, taking the wand from the box she once again stood in front of the full length mirror of her wardrobe, awkwardly pointing the wand at her teeth and carefully making the correct wand movement she uttered the words "macero lente incisors correcto."

At first she could detect nothing happening but as she stood and watched, her rather large front teeth began to very slowly shrink, when they were about three quarters their original size she said "finite." Then she re-examined her teeth and felt quite pleased with her self, the book was right, magic was real, and she was a witch. She thought of doing the spell again but decided she would stick with her first decision, and reduce the size of her teeth slowly over the next few weeks, if she did it right then everyone would assume it had happened naturally, especially her parents, she did not want to anger or upset them in case they should discover how she had done it and confiscate the book.

Having reduced her teeth, and had a little fun walking around the house hidden under the invisibility cloak. Hermione climbed into bed feeling that this her tenth birthday had been the best birthday she had ever had. Tomorrow evening she would read the next part of her book of magic.

Thursday at school seemed to be one of the longest Thursdays Hermione could ever remember. Even though it was normally her favourite day with all her favourite lessons, every time she looked up at the clock on the wall above the teacher's desk, just a few minutes had passed. By the time the final bell rang to announce the end of school for the day, Hermione already had all her school stuff packed into her school bag. As the teacher said the word 'dismissed' Hermione was already half way through the door, instead of walking along the corridors to meet her mother she ran as fast as her legs would carry her.

A/Note, I got the idea from another story that contained a book sent to Harry from the future. The only similarity between the two stories is however only the reference to a book from the future.  
So with that out of the way let us move on to the next chapter shall we.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

Part two

Hermione leapt from the car as soon as it shuddered to a stop in the drive, rushing into the house she did not even pause to hang up her coat in her haste to reach her bedroom. Five minutes later Hermione was sitting down on her bed her legs crossed, the book was open on her lap. She opened the pages to the first chapter and began to read.

_Harry James Potter. Chapter one. My formative years._

Before we begin the story of my life let me just say that it took me a very long time to decide to include this part of my story, it is a part of my life I have never divulged before, not to you or anyone else. My final decision to add it was so that in future years you will have an insight as to why I become so moody at times. The truth is I didn't know at the time just how my formative years had affected me. The story of my first eleven years is not a pleasant one so you can if you wish pass over this chapter and go on to the next one. The years at Hogwarts were not much better except for the fact I had you to look after me for most of the time I wasn't a prisoner at Privet Drive.

I was born to my parents James and Lily Potter in the village of Godrics Hollow on July 31 1980. On the eve of Halloween just after my first birthday both my parents were murdered by an egotistical maniac (you will learn more about him as we go on). On that same night Voldemort, (that's his name), also tried to kill me, but I can now say thankfully he failed.

I was discovered slightly injured at one a.m the same night by a giant of a man by the name of Rubeus Hagrid; better known to everyone as Hagrid.  
Hagrid delivered me to the headmaster of Hogwarts School of witchcraft and Wizardry, he in turn left me on the door step of number four Privet Drive, Little Whinging. It was the door step of my aunt and uncle, (the place of my imprisonment). I was wrapped in a blanket along with a letter telling them what had happened and asking them as my last living relatives to take care of me.

My Aunt and Uncle, Petunia and Vernon Dursley, took me in; I think it was through fear of Dumbledore (the headmaster) though, because they hated the very sight of me…

Hermione read on, reading about all the beatings and starvation, the slave like treatment Harry Potter had suffered through all his young years with his aunt and uncle and their nasty spoilt son Dudley.

An hour and an half later Helen Granger found her daughter sitting in her room crying, the sobs that came from the young girl tore at Helens heart. Holding Hermione in a hug she asked what it was that had upset her so much. All that Hermione was able to do was to haltingly ask her mother to give her a little time, and she promised to tell her mum all about it at supper.

Not really happy with things Helen left her daughter as asked, only to go down stairs and to worry about Hermione. It was fifteen minutes later before Hermione could bring her self to finish the first chapter.

The last few lines she read made Hermione's mind up and brought out in her all the amazing amount of courage she had.

_'I don't have a really good memory of the September in 1989 that you had your tenth birthday. That was the month when Vernon cracked my ribs and broke my arm. I remember I was locked in my cupboard under the stairs from around the beginning of the second week, because the pain I was in was making me cry and it was getting on his nerves. The end of that month was the only time in my life I ever got to see a doctor, and he had been struck off or what ever they call it. Apparently an infection had set in and in my starved condition I was unable to fight it. I once again came very close to dying that year,'_ the last Paragraphs told about his Hogwarts letter and all that had happened until he boarded the train to start his first term as a student at the school.

Hermione flipped through the book her eyes rapidly scanning the pages; she was hoping she could find a spell that would do what she had in mind.  
She was half way through the book when she finally found what she was looking for, she practised the wand movement shown a few times, then remembering the incantation she turned back to the first chapter, and carefully she reproduced each individual page of the chapter. She then hid the book under her underwear in the bottom draw once again.

She had just closed the drawer of her dresser when her mother tapped on the door and called that supper was ready. Hermione rushed to open the door before her mother retreated down the stair, what she was about to do she would have to do here in her bedroom.

"Mum can you call dad up; I need to show you something," she said tears were still running down her cheeks, she was hurting for the little boy who was locked in a dark cupboard under the stairs, his ribs cracked and his arm broken.

As soon as both her parents entered the room Hermione nervoulsy asked them to sit, knowing that their little girl was hurting for some reason and was probably going to tell them about it, Helen and Richard Granger sat down on the bed.

Hermione took a really deep breath then looked her parents in their eyes.  
"Mummy, daddy, I am a witch. A real live magical witch, now before you say anything or think that I am talking about a childhood fantasy. I want to show you some thing," taking another deep breath and shaking a little Hermione opened her wardrobe door once again, then pointing her wand at her self she once again uttered the incantation to reduce her teeth, this time she watched them shrink until they were perfectly straight and level before she said "finite."

Turning to her worried looking parents she gave them a teary but large though obviously forced smile, showing them a perfect set of teeth. As both her mother and father gasped, she walked the few steps to her desk and picked up the cloak from the back of the chair, with a quick twist she vanished under the cloak; two louder gasps escaped her parents.

"I'm ok," she said as she walked to stand right in front of them before removing the cloak, making them both jump back a little when she did remove it.

"Your teeth you did magic?" her dad said as he reached out and felt the material of the cloak.

"Yes dad, that's why I am different from all the other girls at school, that's why all those odd things happen around me," she replied pulling her failing courage back together, there was one more thing to do.

With another really deep breath Hermione looked at her dad, "Daddy I want you to kidnap a little boy for me," she held up her hand as her dad was about to have a heart attack or something, "I need you both to read this," she said handing her mother the reproduced parchment pages.

"This can't be true," her dad said as he finished reading.

"Who could do that to a child?" Helen said tears dripping slowly down her face "where did you get this? Who gave it to you?"

"It was the same person who taught me the spell, the one who showed me I'm magic, the one who gave me the cloak. Even if you don't believe it you have to take me there to make sure, how could we live with it, if it is true?" Hermione said having stopped crying.

"Hermione sweet heart you are more like an adult than most of the adults I know," Helen said as she hugged her daughter, "you are right of course; we should go and check it out."

"We can't go about kidnapping a little boy, even if we do find him. I mean there has to be other ways. Kidnapping honestly Hermione I don't know what you were thinking," her dad said more to himself than to them.

Hermione had already thought it all out "We already know where he is, in the cupboard under the stairs, if mum goes in her work clothes she can distract the aunt and uncle while you sneak in under the cloak and get him."

Richard smiled, his daughter was going to be a real hand full for the man she eventually married he thought as he looked at his watch. "Hermione love let me take a look at that stick," Richard said as a plan formulated in his mind, one he thought a little better than sneaking into a house and trying to sneak back out with a kidnapped sick little boy.

Noticing Hermione's rather worried look he smiled at her gently. "Don't worry sweet heart, I'm not going to confiscate it, I have an idea and I just need to check something first, just to make sure I'm safe with it," he said as he held out his hand.

Hermione handed her dad the wand, he then stood and started to wave the wand around, pointing at things and saying "Adab ara kadab ara."

Hermione could not hold back the little chuckle as she realised what her dad was trying to do, and he didn't even have those children's party words right. Picking up a pen from her desk and placing it on the bed she asked her dad for her wand back, with a quick wave she reproduced the pen. She then spent a few minutes teaching her dad the same spell, but as expected when he tried it absolutely nothing happened.

"Good, now we know I'll need to borrow this," he said as he walked from the room. Just a few seconds later he popped his head back into the doorway, he had two clean blankets in his hand "well are you two coming? Oh and Hermione bring that cloak, you never know."

Their dinner still sitting on the table, the Granger family drove out of the drive and headed for Little Whinging. Knowing the area well it was not long before they had arrived in the middle class area, two boys gave them directions to Privet Drive.

At eight forty five, Richard Granger rang the door bell of number four. The door was answered by a hugely obese young boy. "Is your father home?" Richard asked as politely as he could manage. He could not help but think that at least the description of the cousin written on the parchment was accurate.

Richard ran through his plan one more time, pretending to be a wizard he would get this uncle to reveal the boys where about's, then if the boy did look ill treated he would cover him with the blankets to keep him warm, and then he would call the local police on the uncles phone, the boy would get the treatment he needed and the uncle and aunt would be arrested, it was simple and without risk.

The fat boy waddled off down the hallway to fetch his father. While he waited at the front door Richard noticed the cupboard under the stairs, or more precisely, he noticed the locks on it. Locks that in a normal house hold would not be found on a storage cupboard.

Vernon Dursley walked from the living room complaining loudly about being disturbed. When he saw Richard, who was, in Vernon's mind, an equal to him self judging by the clothes he was wearing. He stopped complaining and smiled, his piggy eyes becoming rather like two slits.

Richard did not hesitate; he pulled out Hermione's wand and pointed it at the fat man. "Where is he, where's the boy?"

Richard immediately knew Vernon had seen a wand before because he turned deathly pale just as his thin horsey faced wife Petunia walked out of the living room. She too turned deathly pale as she looked at the wand. Richard prodded the huge stomach of the man standing cowering in front of him.

"Well?" he hissed threateningly.

Vernon pointed a shaky finger at the cupboard and nodded his head.

Richard pointed the wand at Petunia "You! get the boy, and you best be gentle with him." He stepped back a little as he gave her room to open the door.

Even as she reached for the last lock and opened the door Richard was still having trouble believing that the boy was actually in the cupboard. Petunia backed slowly out of the cupboard with the body of a very emaciated and sick little boy with jet black hair.

Richard took one look at Harry and all thoughts of calling the police to let them deal with things left his head. All he could think was that he had to get the boy away and keep him away from the vile piece of humanity in front of him.

The condition of the small boy was far beyond anything that Richard had been able to imagine. The smell from the boy made him gag and he felt his stomach turning over, taking out the cloak he placed it on the floor, then he placed a blanket on top of it.

"You evil bastards," he seethed at the Dursleys "lay the boy down."

Petunia lay Harry down at Richard's feet, "You will tell no one about this if you want to stay out of prison, you pair of…" Richard said adding a few choice words, really swearing for the first time in many, many years. "Right now both of you get in that cupboard."

Vernon looked as though Richard was crazy until he waved the wand under the fat mans nose with a threatening gesture "I could always turn you into a pig; you're fat enough and ugly enough to make a good pig."

Vernon pushed Petunia in to the cupboard and then squeezed himself into the remaining space. Richard forced the door closed against the fat backside that was left sticking out, he turned the lock and then picking up a rather heavy door stop he smashed the knob off the last of three locks.

With Harry wrapped in the cloak, Richard walked down the road to where he had parked the car. Two rather anxious heads were stuck out of the windows as he approached. Harry was so light that neither Helen nor Hermione could tell that Richard had the boy effortlessly held in one arm his head resting on Richard's shoulder.

"Open the door Hermione love," he said as he reached them, gently he placed Harry on the seat next to his daughter, and then wrapped the blankets tighter around him. Despite him smelling awful Hermione cradled Harry's head in her lap all the way as they drove home.

"Daddy you actually got him," Hermione said as she cradled the boys head in her lap.

"Well I was just going to check on him, make sure he was ok. I couldn't believe that he was locked in a cupboard, but that's exactly where he was. I took one look at him and I knew I couldn't in good conscience just leave him there," Richard said realising the enormity of what he had just done.

Richard, who had spent two years as a medical student before changing to the shorter dentistry course to be with Helen, checked Harry over as Helen wept while she very gently washed the boy down with warm water. He smelt of sweat, urine, and vomit, but his temperature was too high to place him in a bath. Taking his clothes she tossed them into the waste bin out in the back garden.

Richard gently spoon fed the very sick Harry a food supplement drink with a strong antibiotic mixed in it. From what he could tell the boy had been in this condition for at least a week, probably longer. Scratching his head Richard wondered how they were going to get the boy treatment for his broken bones, if they took him to a hospital Harry would no doubt end up back with his aunt and uncle, and he and his wife would find them selves in a whole heap of trouble for kidnapping.

Both Richard and Helen spent the night sitting in the guest room keeping a watch on Harry, while unknown to her parents Hermione searched through her magic book to see if she could find something to help Harry.

It was five the next morning when Hermione walked into the room. She looked tired and a little pale as she walked up to the bed, tears began to fall again as she looked down at the sick and very weak boy they had rescued.  
Taking out her wand she pointed it at Harry's arm and said a few words, she watched as the large swollen bruise glowed blue then began to shrink and fade, then taking a steadying breath she pointed the wand at his bruised and cracked ribs and repeated the same charm.

It had taken her all night to find and to learn the healing charm, but she had been determined to help Harry James Potter, he was after all the one who had helped her.

A smiling and proud Helen Granger watched as her daughter repaired Harry's broken bones, then with a small smile she placed her arm around Hermione's shoulder, "Come on sweet heart, you will need some sleep if you are going to look after the boy while we nip into the office," she said as she led Hermione back to her own room and into her bed.

Hermione was woken by her mother at midday, "Hermione could you keep an eye on Harry, I have to go into the office to collect a prescription for more antibiotics from your father," she said as Hermione looked up at her with sleepy eyes.

Hermione quickly dressed and was about to go to Harry's room with the book when she changed her mind, if she was reading the book when her mother got back the book might be discovered, even though her parents had only the night before broken the law to help a little boy, she still did not want them to know about the book yet.

So instead of the book she collected up her birthday cards that were still sitting unopened on the desk, they were still where she had put them when she came home the night before.

Hermione sat in the chair that had been placed next to the bed where Harry lay totally unaware of what was happening. As soon as she heard the front door close Hermione became a little nervous, she had never been left at home alone before, and to be left with the responsibility of looking after someone who was ill was quite a daunting thing even for someone as clever and mature as she was, she was after all still only ten years old.

Pushing these thought aside she sorted through the birthday cards, the first one she chose to open was the one that had been with the box, having pulled it from the envelope she was amazed to see two odd looking little creatures that actually spoke and wished her a happy birthday every time she looked at them, opening the card she read the message inside…

_'Happy tenth birthday Hermione, may all your wishes come true'_ flashed away changing colour every few seconds, having watched the changing greeting for a few seconds she turned her attention to a hastily hand written note at the bottom of the card.

_'Dear Hermione, no doubt it is to late to wish you a happy birthday, I imagine it may well be Saturday or even Sunday before you read this note, I can almost picture you sitting in your room, sorting through all the cards you didn't get around to opening once you had seen the book I gave you'_

"Humph it's only Friday," she huffed before going back to the note.

_'Don't worry about nine year old me, I will recover and we will meet in person in just under two years time. Obviously I will not know you, nor will I know anything about the world of magic so you will have an advantage over myself and the other Muggle born students, but most of all you will also have an advantage over certain other students. You will also have an advantage over fate, an advantage I have worked so tirelessly on for so many years. I only pray that when you read the chapters concerned you will not forget the warning it all carries. I trust in your brilliance to know what to change, my only regret is that the person I am now will not be around to see it all when you change the course of history, and ensure that we both have a long and happy life together.  
I suppose you have wondered why I did not give the book to my younger self, the answer is quite simple. I had to deliver the book in person by hand to either you or myself. As meeting with myself would have been a little difficult and might well have been calamitous I chose you._

Love.

Harry.'

Hermione looked at the boy she didn't really know, she had not even heard his voice or seen his eyes, all she knew for now was that some how he was very special. A sudden thought entered her mind as she watched him sleep.

"Well Harry James Potter, it seems I have already changed the future," she said brushing his fringe from his eyes and smiling.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

.

The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

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Part three.

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A/Note, Ok folks I hope you enjoy where this one is going and I hope you will spare the few minutes it takes to post a review to let me know your thoughts on it.

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It was two days before Harry opened his eyes and was able to look around to find him self in a strange room, lying on a real bed. One that had pillows and felt warm and comfortable. Looking at the window he could see that it was quite dark out so it had to be late. It was then when he began to panic over what his aunt and uncle would do to him for being here, he had missed doing his chores, his agitated movements awoke a young girl sitting in a chair by the bed.

Hermione woke from her nap when she heard movement, it had sounded like the bed rustling, she was fully awake seconds later when she realised Harry was beginning to panic. Taking hold of his hand and stroking his head while she held him she gently shushed him and assured him in a quiet voice that he was quite safe.

The unusual feeling of someone gently holding his hand calmed Harry almost as soon as he felt it, no body had ever held his hand in that way before. Before when he had been held it had never been gentle, it had always been rough and painful leading to a beating before being thrown in to his cupboard. He looked over at the girl who was now standing smiling at him.

"Hello Harry, I'm Hermione. Hermione Granger, you're safe now, we kidnapped you from you uncles house, my dad went in and got you," Hermione said proudly, she then started relating the entire story of how they had rescued him from the cupboard under the stairs.

Harry sat staring at her wondering why some one would want to rescue a freak that was a waste of space; his curiosity was aroused so he asked.

"Why?"

"Well because they were mistreating you of course," Hermione replied as though he should already know.

Harry had no idea what she meant; he had always been treated the same way so that's what he told her.

"Harry that's against the law, they could go to prison for treating you like that. Honestly I don't understand why your teachers did nothing about it," she said sounding a little angry.

"Uncle Vernon tells everyone I'm incurably clumsy, and tells me that I am a freak not worth the food they waste on me." Was all he said.

Hermione with tears in her eyes gave his hand a gentle squeeze, "I'm just going to tell my mum you woke up, would you like some soup."

Harry smiled and tried to remember the last time some one had been so nice to him, but gave up, having failed to remember one single time, and said rather timidly "Yes please."

Ten minutes later Harry's first meeting with Mrs Granger did not start out very well. Hermione could see straight away that Harry was terrified of her mother. Taking Harry's hand again she gave it another gentle squeeze and smiled at him "It's alright Harry no one here will ever hurt you."

Very warily Harry watched as Mrs Granger asked him to sit up, he watched her every move as she placed a bowl of soup in his lap, once he was convinced he was not about to get a beating, he started on the soup. He found the soup delicious and ate every last drop scraping at the bowl with the spoon to clear the sides. With a pleasant feeling in his stomach, one he could not remember ever feeling before, he watched as the girl Hermione, moved the empty bowl and placed it on the bedside cabinet. After Hermione told Harry that this house was now his new home and that he would never be going back to the Dursleys, he was feeling happier than he could remember ever being before. Lying back down he gave in to the tiredness he felt and snuggled down in the warm and comfortable bed and fell asleep.

Hermione watched as Harry fell asleep, there was something special in the way he was so gentle and polite. His emerald green eyes were full of gentleness, and eagerness to please. Full of gratitude and something she was not sure of maybe respect and a touch of awe or admiration for his saviours, but she had also seen fear, pain and hurt in those lovely eyes. Hermione was in no doubt that despite the cruelty he had suffered Harry was still a nice person.

~*~*~*~

Late Saturday afternoon Albus Dumbledore, head master of Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry took out a few delicate instruments from his glass cabinet, placing them carefully on his desk he began his weekly checks on the wards around number four Privet Drive. All the wards checked out alright, none of them had been breeched and he could not detect any tampering with any of them at all, so why was it that he could not detect any magic any where in the house. Thinking that he may have made a mistake he began the checks again but came up with the same results, there was no magical signature in the house.

Dumbledore felt a little panic begin to build in him as he realised that number four Privet Drive was no longer the home of Harry Potter. Having floo called his deputy professor Minerva McGonagall, Dumbledore paced his office; his mind was in turmoil as he tried to think what could have led to this disaster. As soon as Minerva joined him he told her Harry was missing.

"Was he there the last time you visited?" she asked as the surprise sank into her conscious.

"You were there Minerva, you know full well he was there," snapped Dumbledore then adding "sorry I didn't mean to snap at you."

"Albus it was nine years ago when I was there, surely you don't mean that was the last time you checked on him," she said astonished at what the head master was implying.

Dumbledore waved a hand at his instruments "I've checked the wards every week, and I always check for his magical presence, this is the first time he has not shown up on them."

Minerva McGonagall collapsed into one of the chairs at the desk, "You never went to check on the boy, to see he was being looked after, to check his well being, not once in all these years?" she gasped finding it hard to believe.

Dumbledore shook his head, asking him self why he had been so sure the boy would be safe at his aunt's house, why he had not been to see for him self if the boy was alright. Walking over to his cabinet and taking out his pensieve he said "We should go there, we need to know what has happened." If the boy is d... has run away we... er he will be in great danger.

Minerva agreed and together they took a port key to Privet Drive. Minerva could not believe what they found when they entered number four, an apparently very stupid very fat boy was trying to prise a strong lock off a small cupboard under the stairs, using a butter knife, "Mum and Dad are locked in," Dudley said sounding every bit as stupid as he looked. With a wave of her wand she removed the locks. Having opened the cupboard they found the adult Dursleys squeezed into what appeared to be a small home made prison cell. On the floor was a very thin foam mattress along with a worn out old blanket, they could see that a small child had been kept in there by the writing on the walls, there was a freshly drawn picture of a birthday cake with nine candles on it, the name on the cake was that of Harry.

The look of sadness in Dumbledore's eyes when the realised what they were seeing, did nothing to quell the anger that Minerva McGonagall was feeling toward the man she had thought so highly of.

After allowing the Dursleys to have a drink and a few sandwiches Albus began to question them, but to his surprise they both refused to reveal what had happened or where Harry was. Left with no choice Dumbledore used his magic to extract the memories of what had happened from Vernon.

Having placed the memories into the pensieve the two professors watched in horror as an unknown wizard with his wand waving threateningly forced Petunia to get Harry from the small cupboard and place the visibly severely sick boy on to an invisibility cloak. They were both appalled at the sight of the sick child, looking at the way the wizard heaved and was almost sick then placed his hand over his nose and mouth as he wrapped the skin and bones that were Harry Potter in the blankets and cloak with his other hand brought tears from McGonagall's eyes.

She had not failed to notice the anger and hatred the unknown wizard had in his eyes when he looked at the Dursleys while he forced them at wand point into the cupboard. She did not fail to notice the gentle way he had lifted the sick child, she heard the tenderness in his voice when he whispered "It's ok Harry, it's over now, you'll be alright now." Then the memory ended as the door was forced closed locking the Dursleys into the cupboard.

Back in Dumbledore's office Albus was asking her to organise a search for Harry, he then made the mistake of saying that Harry would have to go back to number four in order to be safe.

Her anger aimed at the Dursleys turned into a fury with the head master. When she was finally able to speak, the words she used as she yelled at him, he did not know she was even capable of saying. She refused to assist him in finding the boy just to have him put back with what were obviously cruel and vicious Muggles. Storming from his office she swore she would do all she could to help the wizard that had rescued little Harry Potter from the hell Albus Dumbledore had placed him in.

~*~*~*~

Sunday Morning Harry awoke to find Richard standing by his bedside cabinet mixing some very pale yellow liquid in a small drinking glass. For a few fleeting moments fear filled him, but then a hazy memory of the man gently lifting him and saying it was all over came to the front of his mind and he relaxed knowing he was really safe at last.

Richard turned from the cabinet and offered Harry the glass of yellow liquid, smiling he held it out to Harry "You need to drink all of this before breakfast Harry," he said still smiling and feeling pleased at how quick Harry was recovering.

"So do you feel like getting up for breakfast, or would you rather stay there and get some more rest. You were quite ill you know. Come on drink it up," he said chuckling as Harry scrunched up his face and gave a judder at the medicine.

Harry did as he was told then said he would like to try to get up, he swung his legs from the bed and tried to stand, it was only when he fell back on to the bed he realised he was not wearing any clothes.

Richard noticed the embarrassment on Harry's face and chuckled again, "The girls wanted to put you in pyjamas but I didn't think you would like waking up wearing Hermione's old pink ones."

Harry chuckled a little himself "No sir, thank you sir."

A few seconds later Richard handed Harry a pair of jean's that had been bought for Hermione, but were two sizes too big for her. He also gave him a white tee shirt and a pair of white socks.  
When Harry was dressed Richard lifted him into his arms and carried him down to the dining room where Hermione and her mum were just starting breakfast. Hermione leapt from her chair and pulled the chair next to her away from the table so that her dad could put Harry down.

For reasons she did not know her self Hermione held Harry's hand as he ate with them. He was not able to eat much but what he did eat he seemed to enjoy. Hermione was surprised when Harry shakily said in a quiet scared little voice "I'm sorry for not being able to wash the dishes."

"You are not with your aunt now Harry, you don't have to worry about the dishes," Hermione said smiling at him.

"Harry dear you will be living with us from now on; there will be some small chores of course. Like Hermione you will have to earn your pocket money," Mrs Granger told him as he sipped a freshly poured cup of tea, he had never been allowed to have more than half a cup before and was truly enjoying this amazing meal.

"What's pocket money?" he asked looking puzzled.

Mrs Granger sighed; she should have known she thought, "Well pocket money is the allowance we will give you each week to put in your pocket to spend on what ever you want. Now for the chores you will have to do, you will take turns with Hermione taking out the rubbish, and then every weekend you will help me and Hermione to wash the lunch dishes. If you see any litter that has blown into the garden you will be expected to pick it up and put it in the bin, I think that's every thing."

"Everything…? What about mopping the floors, and doing the weeding, and the mowing and what about cooking the breakfast and all the other stuff?" Harry asked sounding shocked.

"Good grief Harry did you have to do all that for the Dursleys?" Richard asked amazed.

"Your life is going to be a lot better here Harry, and starting tomorrow you will be my cousin," Hermione almost whispered while giving his hand she was still holding a squeeze.

"Yes Harry we can't possibly keep you hidden from the neighbours. Might arouse suspicions if we try, and we don't want you taken back to the Dursleys now do we?" Mrs Granger said grinning at him.

"I've got it all worked out," Richard said sounding conspiratorial "After the week end we smuggle you out of the house. We can spend some time getting you some clothes, and then you arrive home in the car with me in full view of everyone. Then when people ask you tell them that you are Harry Granger and you have just lost your parents so you have come to live with your aunt and uncle. So what do you think?"

A tear from each eye trickled its way slowly down Harry's cheeks "You would do all that for me?"

"There's no need to sound surprised Harry. There is no way we would ever let those Dursleys get their hands on you again," Richard said smiling.

"Thank you sir, thank you all of you," Harry said sincerely as another tear fell.

"No more of the sir now Harry, I'm Uncle Richard, that's Aunt Helen, and Hermione is your cousin ok," Richard said with a mock stern look.

"Yes sir, er Uncle Richard," Harry said as he grinned at the face Richard was pulling.

After breakfast Richard carried Harry back up to his room, Hermione followed close behind. As Harry was taken in to his room Hermione went into her own room. As soon as she heard her father close Harry's door and go back down the stairs she got out the book and the cloak, quietly she crept into Harry's room.

"Hi Harry."

"Hi Hermione, er, Hermione your dad just told me it was your idea to get me away from the Dursleys, thank you so much." Harry replied to her simple greeting.

Hermione blushed bright red but answered "Well I couldn't leave my future husband knowing what I knew."

"What?" Harry said surprised.

"It's all in the book, though I don't think you expected me to get that far so quick," she said as she sat next to him on his bed.

"Huh," was all Harry managed to accompany his look of bafflement.

"You mustn't let mum or dad know about the book," Hermione said as she opened it and laid it carefully across their laps, "Look."

Hermione opened the book on the first page she had read, Harry adjusted his glasses and looked down at the first line.

_'Harry James Potter, his life, and your part in it'_.

"That's me!" Harry exclaimed as he read the beginning.

"Yes Harry, you must be a great wizard if you were able to do what everyone thought was impossible," Hermione said some awe showing in her voice.

"You mean I'm going to be like those men on TV, the ones who always wear a black suit?" he asked.

"No Harry, I mean like Merlin, doing real magic," she said just a little sharp.

"Sorry," Harry replied quickly "But uncle Vernon always said there was no such thing as magic."

"Well he would, he wouldn't want you putting a spell on him for being so horrible would he," Hermione said feeling sorry for being sharp with him.

Hermione got up from the bed and lifted up the cloak, with a quick flick her body vanished "See, this is what we will use to get you out of the house to go shopping."

Harry sat with his mouth open as Hermione pulled the cloak off and proceeded to make a copy of the book, "Now we both have a copy, we can learn together."

For the rest of the day the two of them sat on the bed and read from their copy of the book, Hermione told Harry they should start at the beginning and work through it as he had intended her to do.

"I really should have only learnt that one spell yet, but I couldn't resist just flipping through and checking a few things," Hermione said as Harry turned to the second page.

"What about us getting married then, where does it say that," Harry suddenly asked.

"Oh that's somewhere in the middle, I found it when I was looking for something to heal your broken arm," Hermione replied not looking up.

Harry just shrugged his shoulders and started reading the second page.

On Monday morning Richard and Harry drove away from the house, just as they had planned, Richard had placed two old suit cases in the car, the night before. Fifteen minutes into the drive Richard told Harry he could remove the cloak, five minutes later they entered the large shopping centre on the out skirts of town and began a small shopping spree for boys clothes. Richard also bought a few boys toy and games for his new family member.

Two and three quater hours after Richard and Harry left the house, Hermione and her mum were standing on the drive way near to the gate as they eagerly waited for Harry to get back from the shopping trip. Their welcome for Harry when he returned tired and exhausted, but safe was as welcoming as it would have been had he indeed been Hermione's real cousin. Harry blushed red when Hermione hugged him tight, he had never been hugged before and he was surprised at how pleasant it felt.

Helen introduced her nephew Harry to one of the more nosey neighbours, who had come to see who the new arrival was. "She'll tell everyone in town by tomorrow," Hermione whispered in his ear as they carried his suit cases in to the house.

~*~*~*~

Minerva McGonagall had no lessons to teach on Monday until after lunch, when she had the Gryffindor's and Hufflepuffs at two thirty.  
All day Sunday she had been thinking things over, she was not at all happy with the conclusion she had come to, she could not trust Albus not to obliviate her and remove the visit to the Dursleys from her mind, she just wondered how long he would wait.

Knowing that Albus was going to a meeting with the old members of the order of the Phoenix she waited patiently for him to leave, she watched as at precisely eight-o-clock on that Monday morning Albus left the great hall and turned toward the main entrance. As she followed at a distance she watched him pull something from his pocket and three seconds later he vanished.

It did not take her long to reach the head masters study, taking his pensieve she placed it into her bag, then having made a port key she vanished just as Dumbledore had.

Molly Weasley had just finished seeing her husband off to work when her old friend appeared in the garden.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse and the grey stuff that thought it up.

.

The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

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Part four.

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Molly Weasley had just finished seeing her husband off to work when her old friend appeared in the garden.

"Is Arthur here?" the visitor asked as Molly led the way into the kitchen.

"No, Arthur has already left for the ministry, he has several raids planned for today, come on in I'll put the kettle on," Molly replied as she walked to the stove.

"I'm afraid I am the bearer of bad news this morning Molly, it seems Harry Potter was kidnapped by some unknown wizard. I was astonished when I witnessed the Dursleys memories, who ever the wizard was, it would seem he has Harry's interests at heart, and he was extremely gentle with the boy when he took him. Though I must say for a few moments I thought he was going to do some thing awful to the Dursleys, it's a long time since I saw that amount of hate in some ones eyes." The visitor said sitting at the table.

"Oh that's awful, how could some one get away with that, and what can we do?" Molly asked pouring out two cups of fresh tea.

"Well I'm afraid if we don't find the boy soon all our plans will come to nothing at all," was the reply.

"But I've been preparing Ginny since she was born, even now all she talks about is meeting Harry Potter, there must be something we can do," Molly said as she sat down facing her old friend.

"All we can do is hope we find Harry soon and before he finds attachments outside of your family, if we fail then our plan will fail," came the answer she did not want to hear.

"No we can't let that happen, eight years of planning, eight years of building the boy up to Ginny, all that work wasted, surely there must be some way to trace the boy?" Molly said feeling as though she had just lost something that she was so close to getting her hands on.

"I will do what I can, but you should consider the possibility that you will not be able to restore the Weasleys to their former glory," the visitor said with a sigh.

"Well you know why I need that money, with the Potter fortune the Weasleys could get back all that Arthur's father lost." Molly said sounding just a little desperate.

"Just stay calm Molly, and when you go into Diagon Alley keep your eyes and ears open, ask your friends if they know of any strange wizards that have recently arrived," the friend said rising to leave "it's all we can do for now, I'll make a few discreet enquiries at the Wizengamot."

"I have to go, I have a meeting to attend," her friend said standing and then walking to the door.

"You will let me know if you find him, oh and Albus if you see Arthur tell him to collect the shopping, please." Molly said as he walked out of the Burrow.

~*~*~*~

Minerva McGonagall arrived out side a small remote crofter's cottage some where in the highlands of Scotland. Walking to the door she knocked gently on the small door.

"Come in Minerva, come in," an old female voice answered from within the tiny cottage.

"Hello aunt Sorcha, I'm sorry I am not here on a social visit, I suppose you already know why I am here," Minerva said as she hugged the old lady, who had remained sitting in her rocking chair.

"Three years Min, you haven't visited your old great aunt for three long years, but to answer your question, yes I know why you are here, you want to know about the boy," Sorcha said with what Minerva thought was a comical pout.

"And you no doubt know just how busy I am, it was your idea that I take a job teaching remember," Minerva said jovially.

"Come sit down child, we will discuss what you know and I'll tell you what I have seen," Sorcha told her favourite great niece.

~*~*~*~

Monday was a busy and rather expensive day for Richard Granger, he wasn't worried by the expense, both he and Helen had discussed it and thought that keeping Harry from possible death at the hands of his Uncle was worth all the money they had saved if needed, that and more if it was needed.

When he arrived home tired and weary, Richard Granger had several pieces of paper in his possession. Papers that just a week ago he would have thought so far from reality as to be impossible, the mere suggestion would have been totally preposterous, but then saying he would kidnap a boy from his home would have been just as preposterous.

Sitting at the dining room table with Helen, he passed the papers to her one at a time, starting with a death certificate for a brother named John. A brother he had never had. A death certificate for a sister in law named Ann, a woman that had never existed. He also had a birth certificate for one Harry Granger born 31 July 1980, and a completed will and testament of the brother he never had, all of them were perfect enough to fool even an expert in forgeries.

Richard had contacted one of his more seedy patients early in the day, and together with his help he had obtained all the documents needed to turn Harry Potter into Harry Granger, legal ward of his aunt and uncle Helen and Richard Granger.  
All he had left to do was to visit the local town hall in the morning and register the deaths of the two road traffic accident victims, and register himself as Harry's legal guardian.

~*~*~*~

Minerva had sat quietly and listened as her great aunt told her what she knew about Harry Potter, "If you can get the boy a good wand, one that can't be traced, the boy is with some one who will teach him to use it well. With a wand in his hand and his mate by his side he will grow in power and that will change his magical signature. No body will be able to find him, especially now that the boy is with his true love. There is a love bond growing between them even now I can sense it. Go to him Min, help the boy, and his girl for there are those who would have him marry the wrong one, they want his money and his name," Sorcha said adding the last few words angrily.

"So where do I find the boy?" Minerva asked knowing she need not have asked.

"There are those close to you who would take that knowledge from you, and use it for them selves, kneel down child and I will place my protection on you," Sorcha commanded.

Minerva did as her great aunt ordered and knelt down in front of her aunt on the hard packed earthen floor.

Minerva thanked her aunt and after a hug goodbye she left the croft, outside she vanished with a quiet pop.

Sorcha the most powerful of all witches alive lay back in her chair and closed her eyes, she smiled as with her gift of sight she watched her replacement teaching a nine year old boy how to shrink teeth.

"Hurry up and find me child, my bones grow weary, the years are dragging on, I am ready to hand it to you now," she whispered as she watched Hermione smile once again at the one who would grow to be her true love, and Harry smiled back at her, his heroine.

Minerva arrived in Diagon Alley and made her way quickly to St Mungo's hospital; as soon as she arrived there she quickly sought out her cousin, some one she knew she could trust with her very life.

"I need two days with absolutely no visitors at all," she told her cousin as they sent an owl to Hogwarts to say she had been brought in from Hogsmeade with some strange Muggle disorder.

With that done Minerva quickly and quietly left the hospital through a little known back door and apparated to the place Sorcha had put in her mind, checking around that she was not being followed she knocked on the door of the rather nice house she had arrived at.

Harry and Hermione had spent the better part of the past two days so far, reading the first few pages about the strange and sometimes dangerous life of Harry Potter as it would have been had Hermione not interfered. Neither of them were happy about how things had happened to him as he grew up in that other world. Harry kept repeating how happy he was that things had changed so much and he would not have to suffer his relatives any more.  
When Hermione spent some minutes telling Harry about the tooth shrinking spell, Harry looked at her teeth and smiled "You look nice, but I think it will get better."

"What do you mean it will get better?" Hermione asked puzzled.

"I saw you keep running your tongue over your teeth, I think it is because they feel different but it will go away, the feeling I mean," Harry answered sounding wise for a nine year old boy.

"Did I do it a lot?" Hermione asked sounding a little worried. "It's not my teeth really, it's, oh I don't know, my lip feels funny," she said looking thoughtful.

"Well I think your lip looks dead lovely," Harry stated boldly and totally serious.

"Do you really Harry?" she asked blushing.

"Well I don't know much about lips really except, Aunt Petunia had frowny lips, Aunt Marge had miserable lips, and you have smiling lips," he answered positively giving her a lop sided grin.

Hermione thought about what Harry said while he went back to reading, he was a lot slower at reading than she was, mainly because she had been an avid reader for nearly all her life so far, and because getting better marks at school than Dudley resulted in getting a hit and being locked in his cupboard, so he had never really tried to study hard it had seemed easier that way.

'_Smiling lips, I like that'_ Hermione thought as she got up and walked over to the dresser mirror. When she looked at her reflection she realised that her smile was different since she had had the book, _'or is that because I have smiled so much more since I met Harry_' she wondered.

A sharp knocking at the front door made them both jump, Hermione leaving Harry reading ran down the stairs and opened the door a little, the safety chain firmly attached, she was surprised to see an oddly dressed older woman standing on the step.

"Hello Hermione isn't it, you should let me in before I am seen, we don't want them finding Harry now do we?" the old woman said looking down the drive behind her as though checking she had not been followed.

Harry looked at the page they had been reading and he knew that Hermione had finished reading it ages ago, so he decided that now that he had a nice aunt and uncle, and a very nice and pretty cousin he was going to start doing well with his studies, that and he needed to be able to understand the books like Hermione did, and oddly he enjoyed learning, now there was no threat he would do his best.

~*~*~*~

Harry heard some one coming up the stair with Hermione, it seemed Hermione was talking a little louder than she had been doing before. Harry soon realised she was trying to warn him they had a visitor, just a second later he had placed the books under the bed covers, and he was sitting on them when Hermione entered the room with a stranger, he gave her a cheery smile with a fake look of surprise.

"I didn't tell her Harry she already knew," Hermione said as she saw the surprise in his eyes.

"Hello Harry, I'm Minerva McGonagall, I'll be one of your teachers, I will come here to teach you as often as I can while you are here, though that won't be very often. I'll also be your teacher when you go to Hogwarts," Minerva said as she approached with her hand held out to shake his.

Harry shook hands and glanced at Hermione for help.

Hermione not knowing what to do stood next to Harry and held his hand tightly in hers.

Minerva smiled and nodded, she noted the joined hands, the bond of love was indeed growing and from what she could see it was growing fast. A few more weeks together and it would be an unbreakable bond; she had to do all in her power to help them to stay together at least for those weeks.

Reaching into a pocket hidden in the pleats of her skirt she pulled out an old wand, like all good teachers she always carried a spare, it was after all the tool of her trade, and a spare was always useful to have in case of breakages. Handing the wand to Harry she grinned as he took it without a word and examined it closely.

"This was my great aunts wand, it's yours to keep till the day you get your own, so just give it a wave Harry, see if anything happens," she told him as he took it from her.

Hermione looked at the wand then nodded to Harry who was watching her closely "I think it is too old to have a trace on it Harry," Hermione told him.

Harry gave the wand a wave and was surprised to see a huge swathe of red sparks follow the path of the wand.

"Excellent, absolutely excellent," Minerva declared grinning. The wand was almost a perfect match for the young boy.

"I will try to get you a wand for when I next visit Hermione," she said as she looked at the astonished faces of the two children.

Hermione smiled shyly then reached under her pillow and pulled out her own wand, "I already have one."

Minerva did not question where Hermione had gotten her wand from, she was grateful she would not have to try and buy one, wands could not be trusted to work right for every one who used them.

"Now children I have much to teach you before the day is done. Harry we need you to work hard because we have to change your magic out put, those who want you back where you came from can trace your magical signature, they can find you if we don't change it, I know they wont think to try to track it until around Wednesday. Hermione my aunt Sorcha said to tell you she is happy with the way you are growing so powerful," it was as she spoke that McGonagall remembered just how ill Harry had looked to be just a few short days ago.

"Who healed you Harry? You looked so ill when I saw those awful memories of your uncles," she asked her smile still showing.

"Uncle Richard gave me the medicine and Hermione fixed my broken bones," Harry answered giving Hermione a huge grin.

Minerva was shocked at this revelation, healing bones was a charm only taught to student healers at St Mungo's and second year Auror trainees of the ministry of magic.

"How did you learn that charm?" she gasped at Hermione.

"I read it in a book," Hermione answered not understanding why Minerva was so shocked.

"You just read it in a book, and then did the charm; did it work the first time?" Minerva asked still shocked.

"Well I only did it twice, once on his arm and once on his ribs, it seemed to work fine, why?" Hermione replied.

"Hermione that charm is only taught to student healers after they have done seven years of learning magic at school," Minerva said with a new sense that they would beat Dumbledore and any death eaters that might be left.

"You can come in now Mrs Granger," Minerva suddenly called smiling at Hermione.

Hermione's mother Helen entered the bed room with a frying pan in her hand, looking as if she had been caught spying, but determined to protect her two children.

"You won't need your weapon," Minerva said smiling "I'm here to help keep Harry safe from those awful Muggles, his uncle should be locked away."

"Now Hermione I have here a safety pin, when you hold it in your hand it will take you to my great aunt Sorcha, she will help us by placing her protection on your mind, just in case you should meet some one magical and they try to find out if you know where Harry is, aunt Sorcha also has a gift to pass on to you," Minerva said holding up the pin.

~*~*~*~

Hermione looked at her mother, then she looked at Harry, she would do anything to keep him safe so taking a deep breath and plucking up her courage one more time, she reached out and took the pin. In the blink of an eye Hermione found herself outside a tiny thatched cottage, taking a deep breath she knocked on the door.

"Come in Hermione child, don't stand out in the cold," came a croaky old voice.

Hermione was feeling scared and ready to run but there was something about the voice, some thing gentle and kind, and she some how knew she could trust the woman who had offered to teach them, the one who had sent her here. She opened the door and entered the cottage.

"Ah, Hermione, welcome child, how are you finding the book, interesting I hope, you know I do believe Harry knew exactly what he was doing when he brought it back in time to give to you, now I have a gift for you, come over here and give this old woman a hug," Sorcha said cheerfully.

Hermione still a little frightened and totally puzzled about how the old lady knew these things, walked slowly over to the old woman and gave her a quick but friendly hug, as the two witches hugged Hermione felt some tremendous power rush through her veins, the feeling only lasted for a few seconds before it was gone.

"Sit down child I have much to tell you," Sorcha said indicating a chair.

Hermione sat down wondering what had just happened, what it was she had just felt flow through her entire body; a pleasant powerful tingle had filled every part of her as she hugged the old woman, she sat and she wondered what it all meant.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

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The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

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Part Five.

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Hermione sat down wondering what had just happened, what it was she had just felt flow through her entire body; a pleasant powerful tingle had filled every part of her as she hugged the old woman, she sat and she wondered.

"So child, you have been reading the book Harry gave you, did you see anything in it that you have not understood?" Sorcha asked quietly, leaving time for Hermione to think.

Hermione thought about the question for a while before she answered, "Apart from not understanding how it came from the future or how it was done, there was a little I read in one of the later chapters, Harry referred to me as Mrs Weasley, but I never got to finish that part."

"You should do as Harry asked and read from the beginning, but to answer that part, I can tell you that there are those who would knowingly steal your heritage, they will attempt to steal your blood, to change who you are destined to become," Sorcha said with a sigh.

"Why would someone want to steal my blood?" Hermione wondered out loud.

"You misunderstand me child, when I say they will steal your blood, what I mean is they will do all they can to place you in a marriage with a pure blood wizard, they will want your blood line to strengthen an old wizard family bloodline that is beginning to die out, or become unstable. They will try to marry you to one you should not marry, your place is with Harry," Sorcha explained, "but now you have found me I can give you a small extra gift, I can place my protection on you."

"When you said now I have found you, does that mean that I did not find you before?" Hermione asked curious.

"It does indeed seem that way child; the gift doesn't allow me to see into the future, or into the world of the Harry that gave you the book, but I think Harry knew, though how he knew I can not tell, but I feel sure that he did indeed know what no other wizard has ever known. You see for thousands of years the chosen witch has only received their gift on their twenty first birthday, you have received yours today," Sorcha answered with a warm smile.

"What is the gift?" Hermione asked feeling excited now she knew the tingle she had felt was a gift.

"On your twenty first birthday you will take my place as chosen keeper of witch magic, you will become the greatest witch of the age; witches from around the world will seek you out when they need your help. You will have the sight, and the power from the maker, and with it you will see their troubles and the answers to those troubles," Sorcha answered quietly.

"Now it's time for you to go home… Oh and Hermione place your protection on Harry, he is going to need it, you will know how, just let your magic work for you." Sorcha said as she waved her hand before pointing a bony finger at Hermione.

A brief flash of light dazzled Hermione for a moment and she blinked her eyes closed, when she opened them again she found her self back at home in exactly the same spot she had been in before. Hermione had been gone for just half an hour yet both her mother and Harry were almost frantic with worry and fear.

Hermione assured them that there was nothing to worry about, and after her mother had checked her over, turning her around as though making sure she was all in one piece and had not grown any odd appendages, she was allowed to carry on with Harry and Minerva. Once her mother had left the bedroom she told Harry all that Sorcha had told her, she then placed her hands on Harry's head just as the old witch had done to her.

Hermione felt the power of her magic as it built up somewhere deep inside her, she for all her cleverness and understanding could not decide where the feeling was coming from, but she continued until she felt the power release and flow down her arms into her hands and then she felt it form a protective wall inside Harry's head. As soon as she was certain that there was nothing else happening Hermione sat down on the bed and began to try to analyse what had happened.

Minerva soon distracted Hermione from her musings as she began to teach them some simple spells, like Wingardium leviosa, and Alohomora, it took Hermione just one failed attempt before she managed to make the pen she was using lift into the air without apparent support. Harry took three attempts before he managed the same spell, Minerva taught them several spells before the evening darkness made them realise how late it was, Minerva taught Hermione a charm that would hide Harry's scar when they left the house, and she explained how it was one of the ways that people from the world of magic could recognise him, then with a hug for each of the children Minerva vanished right in front of their eyes.

"Wow that was neat, if I could do that it wouldn't matter if they take me back to Privet Drive, I just go pop and vanish, I wonder where you go though?" Harry said, his enthusiasm for learning growing by the hour.

Hermione sat on the bed and decided it was time she found out if her magic had worked and was now protecting him, she could not help but wonder what it was supposed to protect him from, she asked Harry if he had felt anything, or if he felt anything had changed.

Harry repeatedly answered her questions with the same answer, he had felt absolutely nothing. Knowing that Sorcha had wanted her to read the book as the old Harry had intended Hermione also wanted to find a way to see if her magic was able to protect Harry from what ever it was meant to protect him from. Putting together all she had read so far and the little she had learned from the old chosen witch she decided this was more important than reading the book chronologically, she began to flick through the pages of the book, glancing from page to page she searched for anything that mentioned mind reading or mind protection.

It had not taken Hermione long to find the part where Harry spoke about the cruel and painful nightmares he had suffered at the hands of Voldemort, she wondered if this was what Sorcha wanted him protected from, but for reason's she could not yet work out she knew the protection was against something far more sinister than any nightmare.

Realisation about something came to Hermione when Harry mentioned one of her books and asked if he could borrow it to read, she had been deep in thought until he had poked her gently, she watched as he pulled the book from the book shelf and sat down in his favourite spot.

Opening the book Harry flipped through the pages and began to read the last few pages.

"Harry, you should read it properly, start at the first chapter not the end, how are you going to know how they got to the end if you don't read it right," she joked.

Then it was like a small light going on in her mind, she realised she had been doing the same thing with the book, the only way to really understand a story was to begin at the beginning.

Together Hermione and Harry began to read and study the book properly from the beginning; they soon learned that their magic grew stronger and quicker if they followed the story and learnt the spells as they were supposed to.

Just two weeks later Harry was enrolled in the same school as Hermione, he was placed in the same class and they sat together for all their lessons.

Hermione's thirst for knowledge had some how rubbed off on Harry, and he tried hard to catch up, he no longer had to fear getting good marks, and with Hermione's constant help he worked his way to being next to top of the class in all their subjects, Hermione was still the top of the class and Harry knew he would never be as clever as she was.

He had his first fight in the first week at the school when the school bully began to pick on Hermione. Harry had been a little slow putting away his things as the bell rang for the lunch hour break, when he finally joined Hermione he found her surrounded by some rather nasty kids who were calling her names.

Harry stormed through the crowd around Hermione, and as the ring leader tried to hit her Harry stepped forward and hit the boy with a good left hook. The bully was startled that anyone had the nerve to stand up to him and turned on Harry, the fight broke out between the two of them while the bully's usual cronies backed away. They could see something in Harry that scared them though they had no idea what it was. After the brief fight the bully lay crying on the play ground, Harry helped the boy up on to his feet and warned him if he ever picked on his cousin again he would do more than just hit him.

For reasons unknown to Hermione or Harry the school bully seemed to lose all his hangers on, two of them actually said they were sorry to Hermione and eventually they became friends of sorts. Immediately after the fight Hermione thanked Harry for sticking up for her, something no body had ever done before. Then she proceeded to tell him off for fighting, complaining he might have been hurt. Harry wasn't quite sure whether he should be pleased or annoyed but eventually decided it was just the way girls were, he knew that after years of Dudley bullying him, he would never again allow bullies to get away with their bullying if he could help it.

That Saturday Minerva arrived at the Granger house just as the family were leaving to go on a day trip, the fact that Harry had never been taken anywhere by his relatives had been wheedled from him by Hermione and they were off for a day at a sea side resort, Harry's very first visit to see the sea.

Rather than return to Hogwarts Minerva joined the Grangers and spent the day with them, teaching the two young ones a few things about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they all enjoyed the day. She was asked to stay for the night and slept in the guest bedroom, early the next morning over breakfast Hermione asked how she had vanished and where she had gone, she also asked if they would be able to do it.

Minerva spent quite some time that morning debating with herself as to whether Hermione and Harry were to young, she could see the benefits there would be if the two children could indeed disapparate but she had never heard of any one so young being able to do it, she was about to tell them that they would be to young when she over heard as Harry told Hermione about the day he had vanished from the school playground and ended up sitting on the school roof. Minerva changed her mind, if Harry had already apparated once there was no reason he could not do it again. She had never heard why it was that people in the wizarding world had to be seventeen before they were taught how to do it.

Although she had some fear that one of them could hurt themselves Minerva began to teach them how to travel from one place to another almost instantly. Hermione was the first one to manage the task of moving to a spot at the other side of the room simply by concentrating on being there, Harry was able to do it just a few minutes later.

By tea time that Sunday evening both Harry and Hermione could apparate from the bedroom to any room in the house, Minerva knew that over the next few days the two amazing children would continue to practice until they could travel just about anywhere they wanted. They were both amazingly quick to learn and seemed to have no problems with what ever spell or charm she taught them. She could see the bond between them growing stronger each time she visited them, there was a true love bond that after six weeks of teaching them Minerva could tell no one would ever be able to break.

Hermione and Harry studied the book each night after they had their evening meal and finished their homework, they practiced the different spells, and they discussed the things that the book revealed. Together they were being prepared for their time at Hogwarts, and the future war. Hermione promised her self she would never let Harry face any of the things that were in the book by him self, she swore to always be there for him. Gradually day by day they both grew in both magical strength and in confidence. Together they discovered that the innate magic they were born with could be strengthened simply by believing. Hermione lost the self doubt being bullied had filled her with, and along with Harry she knew they would be able face what ever came as long as they were together.

~*~*~*~

Albus Dumbledore searched every where he could think of in his search for Harry Potter, he had recalled the Order of the Phoenix and set them searching as well, after six weeks of the fruitless search he paid another visit to the Burrow.

Sitting in the kitchen with Molly, Dumbledore told her he thought that Harry had been taken out of the country and that he was considering giving up on the search, he was not usually one to give up easily but every method available had been tried and they had not been able to find Harry's magical signature, even with help from the ministry they had gotten no where.

Molly was not at all happy as she saw the end of her dreams of her only daughter marrying the boy who lived, she was now regretting the years she had spent placing ideas into the young girls head. It was time to begin to try to undo the work she had been so diligent with.

Albus wondered if they would ever hear from or see Harry again, he too was having regrets. He regretted placing Harry with the Dursleys, allowing him to be abused so badly that some unknown wizard had chosen to rescue him. If only he had placed him some where better, some where safer he felt sure there would never have been a need to remove him.

Now he began to worry about the future of the entire wizarding world he wanted to lead. If Harry was as he suspected living in a different country then the prophecy would never be fulfilled, Voldemort would return and the British wizarding world would sink into darkness.

He discussed these fears with Molly who became even more unhappy about the way things had happened, she did not want to believe there would be another war, one in which her children would be involved. A war they could not win with out Harry Potter.

~*~*~*~

The two children had been studying the book carefully for six months, they practiced the spells they came across with great care to the details. Hermione on odd occasions would flip through the pages, looking for connections to the spell or charm they were working on, especially if it was proving a little difficult to master.

It was during one of these times that she came across the story of Sirius Black, who was apparently an innocent man locked away in the worst prison on the planet. As she flipped through the book finding all the little references to Mr Black she came to a decision, telling Harry about her idea he had agreed that they should do something, though what they could do he had no idea. After supper that evening as they sat quietly reading in Hermione's room, she suddenly knew what to do about Harry's godfather Mr Black.

Standing in the middle of the room Hermione called Harry to stand with her, wrapping their arms around each other Hermione told Harry they were going to apparate. With a deep breath and holding tight to Harry Hermione gave her wand a little twist and without a sound the two of them vanished.

Hermione looked around when they landed with a gentle bump, she was truly surprised she had managed to take them both where she had intended, through all their practice sessions they had never gone further than to the back garden before.

Taking Harry by the hand she turned to knock on the door they stood at, "Come in child, come in out of the cold," came Sorcha's voice an instant before Hermione knocked.

Sorcha gave them both a warm welcome before telling them off for leaving home without some one to watch over them, but even as she told them off she was smiling and both Hermione and Harry knew she was not angry with them.

Telling Sorcha about Sirius Black and where the real culprit of the crimes he was accused of could be found gave Hermione a warm pleasant feeling, they were beginning to use their magic to help someone, and she knew that they were doing the right thing.

Sorcha Promised she would send out several what she called compulsion letters, and assured them that Sirius would be free by the week end, the first letters she wrote were to a Madam Bones, and Mrs Fudge at the ministry of magic, all the details of Sirius's case were quickly written down in the letters. Once several letters had been written to various witches Sorcha waved her hand over the letters and cast a silent charm, with another wave the letters all vanished.

"There child, once they read those letters they will be compelled to do something to right such a wrong," Sorcha said looking at Harry "though if you wish to meet your god father you will need some help from my niece."

"Now time for you two to go home," Sorcha said as she waved a finger at them, a quick flash of light and Harry and Hermione found them selves back in Hermione's room.

"How did she do that?" Harry gasped as he looked around.

"I have no idea, but I bet it would come in handy when fighting those death eaters Harry mentions," Hermione said thoughtfully, she wondered if one day she would be able to do such powerful magic.

It was three weeks later when Aunty Minnie, as they had taken to calling Minerva, arrived in Hermione's bedroom just before supper.

She was not alone, for the first time since they first met she had someone with her.

"Oh hello aunty Minnie," Hermione said as she shoved the book she was reading under her pillow "Harry is just in the bathroom."

Hermione was studying the tall dark haired man who had arrived while he protested about being whisked away without warning.

Minerva chuckled "Oh do stop whinging Padfoot," she said grinning.

"Hermione Granger this is Sirius black, who now thanks to you is a free man, Sirius I would like you to meet one of the two people who led to your being cleared," Minerva said still chuckling a little.

Sirius was shaking Hermione's hand and thanking her profusely when Harry walked into the room, Sirius froze with his mouth hanging open when he saw Harry; it was like meeting James all over again.

Over the following months Sirius got to know them and helped Hermione and Harry with their lessons, spending as much time as he could with the two of them. He had been shocked and angered when Minerva had told him on that first visit why Harry was living with the Grangers and why she was teaching them magic in secret. The fact that they were hiding from Dumbledore really angered him and he demanded to know all the details that led to Harry becoming a Granger.

~*~*~*~

On Harry's eleventh birthday both Hermione and Harry were having breakfast and opening Harry's birthday cards when their letters from Hogwarts arrived, they had both been expecting them but they were still excited by actually receiving them.

"So I don't suppose I will be your cousin for much longer," Harry said as he read the letter addressed to Mr Harry Potter.

"Oh I don't know, we could still tell every one at school we're cousins just like we have always done, we don't have to have the same surname to be related, and we don't need to change a thing when we are home," Hermione answered smiling.

"Yeah, maybe it will stop that Ron Weasley being cruel to you, you know I cant believe we were still friends with him after the way he treated you for the first few weeks, mind you I'm glad Harry told us all about him, maybe we should give him a try, see if he can change, what do you think?" Harry asked as he opened another birthday card.

"I don't know, I think I like that Neville boy much more, he seems a lot more loyal than that Ron, I mean don't forget according to Harry he deserted Harry when he was entered into the tournament thing. Then he did it again, and there is no way I will ever want to marry him, not when I have you." Hermione answered seriously.

"Ok Neville it is then, after all Harry did say he wanted you to change things so we could be together for ever, so yeah Neville as best friend," Harry said placing his open birthday cards on the kitchen window.

"Are you still going to be my boyfriend when we get to Hogwarts?" Hermione asked sounding a little unsure.

"Of course I'm still going to be your boyfriend, just as one day I am going to be your husband," Harry answered slightly shocked she had asked.

Hermione leant over and kissed him on his cheek "Too right you are, and don't you forget it Mister Potter," she said as her confidence took a small boost.

"You know it sounds odd being called Potter again," Harry said as he wrapped an arm around Hermione's shoulder, "I mean I've been Harry Granger for the last two years, I've sort of got used to it," Harry stared at his birthday cards lined up on the kitchen window sill, they were all from Hermione's relatives apart from the two from Aunty Minnie and Sirius.

~*~*~*~

Minerva visited them that night and having given Harry a card from the staff at Hogwarts she was meant to post, and his present from her. She reminded them that even though they were well up to fourth year level with their magic they would have to hold back a little once at Hogwarts, "We don't want anyone getting suspicious. Besides I will still be teaching you at weekends as often as I can."

Minerva was proud of the progress the two children she now loved as though they were her own had made. They could easily take and pass all their OWL level exams; she was quite sure about that. She thought back over the past two years and could not remember a single time they had struggled with anything she had taught them; she wished that more of her students were so thirsty for knowledge and so easy to teach.

Giving them both a hug and a kiss goodbye she told them she would see them soon and with a quiet pop she vanished once again.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

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.A/note for the reviewer and anyone else who seems to think that Harry and Hermione getting together in this story would incest, might I just point out that they are not really cousins, it is just a way to hide Harry.

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The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

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Part Six

Eleven year old Hermione twirled the gold ring on the third finger of her left hand; she looked down at the band of gold and admired the intricate Celtic design and the three small emeralds that seemed to glow. She glanced at Harry sitting in the car beside her and saw that he too was twirling his ring; Harry smiled at her and then gave her a gentle kiss on her cheek.

~*~*~*~*~

Hermione's mind drifted back to the previous Monday… '_Her parents Richard and Helen Granger followed Sirius Black into the Leaky Cauldron followed closely by Hermione, all three of them looked around in awe. Today was their first proper visit to the world of magic, of wizards and witches, they had an idea of what to expect, but no matter how well a thing is described either by voice or on paper or parchment it can never truly capture the real thing._

_After two years of reading her special book, visiting Sorcha and meeting Minerva, and Sirius, Hermione was still amazed by the sights that met her eyes as they stepped into Diagon Alley._

_They had visited Gringotts to exchange their Muggle money into wizarding money called galleons and from there the three adults had taken Hermione on a wondrous journey through the various shop's. Sirius had bought an amazing snowy owl for Harry, she herself had bought the oddest looking cat she had ever seen but she had fallen in love with him instantly. _

_With all the School supplies bought, Sirius took them to Fortiscue's ice cream parlour, with the two piles of school equipment sitting at the back of the table. All four of them were just starting on a delicious ice cream sundae when they were approached by a rather excitable red haired man who introduced himself as Arthur Weasley. Hermione knew who he was as soon as he had begun to speak._

_Arthur asked her dad a few odd questions about ekel-trippity and batteries before he enthusiastically shook all their hands, starting with Sirius and ending with Hermione, she could not help but think that for some reason he seemed even odder than Harry of the book had described him._

_As Arthur walked away from them Sirius asked Hermione to pass him a book, when she asked which one he almost whispered "It doesn't matter, any will do."_

_Hermione watched as Sirius opened the book and slipped a small piece of parchment into the pages, while pretending to look at the book Sirius gently unrolled the parchment and looked quickly at the writing._

"_Sorry to rush you, but could you hurry, we may have a problem," Sirius whispered out of the corner of his mouth as he passed the book back to Hermione._

_The Grangers all quickly ate their ice cream and then followed Sirius to the Leaky Cauldron. Sirius walked passed the bar just nodding to the barman. Tom asked if he could help, then with a quick glance around the bar he mouthed the word "four," before turning to clean his bar as though he had said nothing._

_Sirius led the way to a small flight of stairs and then on up to room number four._

_At Sirius's knock the door to room four opened just a crack, enough so Hermione could just make out the blue eye of Mr Weasley before they were suddenly ushered into the room._

_Arthur did not beat about the bush as the door closed he waved his wand at it and set a sealing and silencing charm._

"_Sirius, glad to see you free old friend," Arthur said as they shook hands._

"_So Arthur what's with all the cloak and dagger?" Sirius said as he sat down on the bed._

"_I take it you know where Harry is, but never mind that don't answer, as part of the order I am supposed to be keeping my eye on you. Kingsley is waiting out on the street to take over from me and tail you back to Harry," Arthur then began to fidget and shoved his hands in and out of his pockets while Sirius waited for what ever else he had to say._

_Arthur looked at Mr and Mrs Granger, then to Hermione, then turned his gaze to Sirius again with a quizzical look._

"_You can trust them," Sirius answered the unasked question._

"_You need to get the boy betrothed, legally to a witch of your choice as soon as you can, you need to find some one you can really trust to do it, and it must be done before Harry is sent to Hogwarts," Arthur said sounding urgent._

"_Betrothed? Harry? the boy's only eleven Arthur," Sirius said unable to hide the surprise._

_Arthur sat down on the small chair next to the bed then he looked almost pleadingly into the eyes of each of them one at a time,_

"_If the boy is betrothed they can't carry out their plan." He said quietly "When Harry went missing, it was on one of the few mornings when I had left for work without my briefcase. When I went home to recover it, not wanting another tongue lashing from Molly, I snuck into the house through the front door, I intended to get my bag and be gone. I was quite surprised when I heard Molly talking to some one so I was going to see who it was to say hello, but I heard Dumbledore telling Molly about someone kidnapping Harry, that stopped me for a moment as I wondered what it would have to do with my wife, it did not take me long to hear what they had been planning, they have been planning it since the day Ginny was born. Dumbledore has a marriage betrothal ready for when Harry arrives at the school. He is planning on making Harry sign it whether he wants to or not."_

_Arthur explained that he was feeling his loyalties were being torn, but he knew that what his wife and Dumbledore were doing was wrong, after telling them of the shame he felt he then went on to tell them about why Albus Dumbledore wanted to control Harry and his future._

_Getting out of the Leaky Cauldron without being followed might have proved rather difficult had they all not been willing to do anything to keep Harry from being sent back to his previous life. After Arthur had left them Sirius sealed the room again and after pacing the room for quite a while he straightened his shoulders and walked over to the window._

_Starting with Hermione, one by one the Grangers had crawled out side the wards of the pub onto the narrow ledge outside the window that ran along the outside of the Leaky Cauldron and Sirius apparated them from there to the Granger House._

_Mr Granger was the last to arrive home, as soon as they had appeared in Hermione's bedroom he began to question Sirius about the betrothal, how it was done? Who could do it? Sirius was at a loss as to who he could trust; he had been locked away for so long he had lost touch._

_Hermione coughed, "Sorcha could help," she said looking straight at her dad._

_Before the adults had time to say a word Hermione vanished without a sound. Two minutes later Hermione was sitting in the old cottage telling the old woman all she had heard, and all that had happened._

_Hermione was amazed when Sorcha summoned aunty Minnie without saying a word, with a pop Minerva McGonagall arrived out side the cottage door, she entered as Sorcha called "Come in Min my child,"_

_As soon as Minerva entered the room Hermione lost the control she had kept on her thoughts and emotions, she rushed at the older woman and wrapped her arms around her waist as her tears broke out and ran down her cheeks and she cried "They're going to take my Harry away from me and marry him to a girl with red hair, and put him back with those awful people."_

_Minerva stroked the back of Hermione's head as she shushed the crying girl and said "Over my dead body."_

_Sitting down with Hermione on her lap, Minerva comforted the child she had almost forgotten was not yet an adult, gently swaying back and forth Minerva calmed Hermione before asking._

"_So aunt Sorcha what are we to do?"_

"_I want you to call the McGonagall's good and true, for on Wednesday we have a hand fastening. We will have a betrothal that will be celebrated in the history books," Sorcha said smiling "now Hermione child, I want you to take this hanky, when you get home have Harry, your mum and dad, and Sirius take a hold of a corner each and hold on tight, then I want you to come back here, now off you go child."_

_Sorcha placed the hanky in Hermione's hand then with a flick of her finger Hermione found herself back in her bedroom._

_Hermione looked around and found her self sitting in the middle of her bed, just as she shuffled to the edge Harry opened the bedroom door._

"_I thought I heard you come home," he said as he walked over to Hermione._

_Hermione flung her arms around his neck and began to cry on his shoulder, Harry not having a clue what was happening looked at Mrs Granger for help._

_As Mrs Granger made to step forward Hermione sniffled then pushed herself gently away from Harry._

"_You all have to take a corner and hold on tight," Hermione said as she handed the hanky to Sirius._

_Five minutes later Hermione stood in the small cottage listening as Sorcha told the others that Harry was to be betrothed on Wednesday._

_Sirius explained to Harry what it meant to be betrothed, how in wizarding families a marriage contract could be made between two families ensuring that their children were married to each other when they came of age._

"_I refuse to be betrothed," Harry said before Sirius was finished speaking, folding his arms across his chest and shocking them all._

"_What do you mean you refuse, if we don't do this you will eventually end up back with the Dursleys," Sirius tried to explain._

"_I don't care, if I have to go back to them, then that's what I will do. I refuse to be betrothed to anyone, because me and Hermione are getting married just as soon as we are old enough," Harry said sounding flustered._

_The relief in the room at these words could almost be tasted, Sirius let out a breath he never even knew he was holding. Richard and Helen straightened their backs. Hermione flung her arms around Harry's neck._

"_Oh Harry would you really go back to the Dursleys if it meant you could marry me?" Hermione asked as she kissed his cheek._

"_I'm pleased you feel that way Harry, it makes the hand fastening so much better if the two betrothed want to eventually get married," Sorcha said as she chuckled at the indignant look on Harry's face._

_The adults in the room grinned as Harry's expression changed when he realised he was to be betrothed to Hermione._

_They all spent the night and the next day with Sorcha. Hermione wondered where all the bedrooms came from as she sat on the bed in the small room she had been given, and pictured the outside of the little cottage. Bedroom doors seemed to just appear in the walls when ever someone went in or out of them. All day during Tuesday more and more people arrived and by Wednesday afternoon the field around the cottage was full of tents._

_On Wednesday morning Hermione was dressed by her mother and several other women in a long flowing white dress of very fine almost translucent silk and her hair had garlands of meadow flowers in it._

_Harry was dressed in tartan though it was different from that of the McGonagall's tartan they were surrounded by. Hermione thought he looked really smart in his kilt. Aunty Minnie told them that it was the Gryffindor tartan and had not been used for hundreds of years; she had seemed really surprised when Sorcha conjured the kilt for Harry in his own family tartan. Sirius was even more surprised when he was told which tartan it was._

_Hermione wanted to know what was so surprising about the tartan and she was told it was the Gryffindor tartan, meaning that Harry was a direct descendant of one of the founders of Hogwarts School._

_The betrothal was a lot like a Muggle wedding except they had no rings and it was Richard Granger and Sirius Black that actually spoke as they pledged to join their families with the union of Harry and Hermione. Richard paid Sirius a token dowry of one piece of silver, in this case it was a shiny new ten pence piece. Harry and Hermione agreed to the betrothal when asked._

_Hermione knew she would remember the ceremony till her last breath left her body. She had been led slowly through the gap people made for them to the front of the large crowd; there were flags from around the world being waved by McGonagall's from the four corners of the world who were in the huge crowd. _

_Her father had gently placed her hands into Harry's hands as the old druid standing in front of them asked "Who gives the girl into this contract,"_

_Richard said rather proudly "I Richard Granger the father do,"_

_He then offered Sirius the silver coin, "Who accepts this dowry," the old man wheezed, _

_Sirius smiled at Hermione then at her mum before turning to say "I Sirius Black the godfather do." as he took the coin from Richard._

_As Richard and Sirius stepped back the old druid turned to Harry and Hermione, he wrapped a golden embroidered rope gently around their hands, weaving it in an intricate knot. "Today with your agreement your two families are united, from this day forward you are betrothed one to the other."_

_As the old man placed his wand on the golden rope and chanted an old druid charm to magically seal the contract a blue glow of light surrounded their hands. _

"_Odd," the old man said before continuing "Let the day of your joining bring these families even closer in friendship and arms, till that day I bid you both be faithful to your betrothed."_

_Everyone was shocked when the golden embroidered rope was removed; on their third finger left hand they each had a glowing golden ring._

_Nobody there had ever heard of people being betrothed receiving magical gold rings before, when Sorcha had tried just out of interest to remove the rings she found she was unable too. _

_Sirius commented that it would save them buying the usual rings that wizarding folk used to show they were betrothed, and as they seemed permanent there would be none of the crafty removal that sometimes happened with some couples. Hermione had no idea what he meant._

_~*~*~*~*~_

"What are you thinking about?" Harry asked quietly as the Granger car sped them through the London traffic at nearly five miles an hour.

"Huh, sorry Harry did you say something?" Hermione asked coming out of her daydream.

"I just asked what you were thinking," Harry said a big smile across his face, Hermione had been spacing out ever since they were betrothed.

"Oh I was just remembering the ceremony," she replied.

Harry chuckled "You enjoyed it then."

Hermione nodded already knowing what he would say.

"Well you just wait till we get married, then we will have one heck of a party." Harry chuckled again "mind you that party with the McGonagall's was heck of a great one."

Hermione looked at her mum in the front seat, "Are we close yet, it seems to be taking a long time, I hope we aren't late."

Just as she finished speaking her dad turned the car into a small parking space "Kings Cross at last," he said and waited for Harry to get out before popping the boot open. By the time they had paid for a parking ticket and locked the doors Harry had dragged one of the two trunks out of the car.

Richard and Helen joined Harry at the rear of the car while Hermione holding Harry's owl cage and her cat basket tried to get a look inside the station.

A few minutes later as they stood on platform nine, Hermione, Harry, Richard and Helen looked at the wall that separated the two platforms.

"This isn't going to be as easy as we thought, is it?" Harry said as they all looked at the wall that was broken up into several separate parts.

"It never said in the book, it just said the wall between platforms nine and ten," Hermione said sounding confused, she was not used to the book not having the correct information.

"Over there," Harry said pointing to one of the sections of wall "I just saw a tall boy walk right through it."

The three Grangers and Harry Potter walked gingerly to the wall Harry had chosen. Looking around to see if they were being watched Harry leant against the wall only to fall through landing on his backside with a muttered "Oomph", a couple of seconds later Harry's head popped back out of the brickwork.

"This is the one," he said as his hand came out of the wall and he took hold of Helen's hand.

Hermione holding her dads hand took a breath then walked at the wall, she could not help closing her eyes as she felt sure she was about to crush her nose. When she opened her eyes again she was greeted by the sight that the older Harry had tried so hard to describe, adults, pupils, and young children milled around the crowded platform, trunks were placed behind families as they said their teary goodbyes. While the huge scarlet steam engine sat issuing clouds of steam out every few seconds, every thing the two children saw was for them, slightly awe inspiring.

It was Helen who pulled herself together first as she realised that her two children would soon be leaving her for an unknown destination and a new future in a different world. Trying to put on a brave face she gave Hermione a hug and kiss before giving the same to Harry, she also tried for the millionth time to straighten his hair but gave up, giving a little chuckle.

"Ok lets get your trunks on board," Richard said in a rather gruff voice, he gave a little cough "don't want you to be missing it now we are so close, eh?"

Hermione could tell that her dad was just as sad as they all were to be saying goodbye. With their final hugs and kisses done, Harry and Hermione dragged their trunks down the train looking for a place to sit. Having found a compartment near the rear of the train and stowed their trunks they leaned out of the window to wish a last goodbye to Richard and Helen.

Harry noticed Sirius standing over by the wall, with a smile Sirius winked at Harry then he stood and watched as the train began to pull out of the station. Their first journey to Hogwarts had begun, Harry wondered where Neville Longbottom was, and not for the first time they both wondered if they would recognise him.

They met Ronald Weasley as the train left the platform, when he opened the door to their compartment and asked if he could share. Harry no longer able to call himself Granger just introduced himself as Harry, "And this is Hermione," Harry said before falling silent, just like Hermione he was reading a book.

Neville arrived at their door an hour into the journey "You haven't seen a toad have you, his names Trevor, I don't know why but he keeps escaping."

Harry held out his hand to Neville "Names Harry, this is Hermione," he said as Neville shook his hand.

"I'm N-Neville, nice to meet you," Neville answered nervously.

Hermione held her hand out to Neville, something she had not thought to do with Ron "Nice to meet you Neville."

"Ahem, Weasley, Ron Weasley," Ron said as he too held out his hand to Neville.

Neville looked around nervously, "Well I don't think Trevor is in here," he said as he turned to go back to his search.

"Wait a minute Neville; did you try to summon Trevor?" Hermione said pulling out her wand.

"Summon him?" Neville answered looking puzzled.

"Sit down a minute," Hermione said in her bossy voice "Accio Trevor," she said as she waved her wand toward the door.

Neville squawked as the hood on his robes began to pull him toward Hermione. She chuckled a little as she leaned forward and reached into the hood pulling out a rather large toad.

"No wonder I couldn't find him," Neville said with a sheepish grin at them.

Hermione and Harry spent the rest of the journey talking mostly to Neville, Ron spoke up a few times but most of his conversation was about Quidditch and players that none of the others had ever heard of.

Just before they arrived at Hogsmeade station they were discussing wands, Harry was showing his brand new one while Hermione showed them her battle scared one.

Both Neville and Ron pulled out old wands and as Harry looked at them he remembered a line from the book, a line that he had heard the night Sirius had smuggled him into Ollivander's under the invisibility cloak.

"You know you really should have your own wand, the wand chooses the wizard, you wont get very good results with those old things," Harry said sounding wise.

"H-Hermione's got an old one too," Neville pointed out.

"This one chose me before I got my letter," Hermione said.

The discussion on wands was brought to an end when the train started to slow down,

"We should put our robes on Harry," Hermione said sounding urgent.

Grabbing her robe she rushed off to the nearest restroom.

"Bloody bossy know it all, that one," Ron said as soon as she was out of ear shot.

Harry stood up and stepped in front of Ron, "If I ever hear you say anything else like that about my betrothed I'll rip your tongue out."

Ron looked up and was about to say something when he saw the lightning bolt scar on Harry's forehead.

"Yeah what do you want to call a nice girl like Hermione names for?" Neville added glowering at Ron.

Ronald Weasley cringed down into his seat and remained quiet until the train pulled into the station, he couldn't get out of the carriage quick enough after that.

Hermione came back into the carriage just as Harry and Neville had got all their trunks ready "Where's Ron?" she asked.

"I think he was even worse than we thought," Harry answered getting a puzzled look from Neville.

"Bet he ends up in Slytherin," Neville commented as they dragged their trunks to the exit and on to the platform.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

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A/Note, I had a little extra free time this evening so I spent it checking this chapter so I can post it early for my readers.

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The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

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Part Seven

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Hermione stepped from the train straight into the tree sized left leg of a huge man, as she and Neville both slowly looked higher and higher, craning their necks to see high enough, she could hear Harry say "Hello, I'm Harry, you must be Hagrid, it's nice to meet you, thanks for rescuing me at Godrics Hollow."

Looking up at the huge half giant she figured the old Harry had been right Hagrid had to be at least ten feet tall.

Hagrid sounded slightly embarrassed as he stuttered a quick reply to Harry about him being welcome, then with a rather loud sniff the huge man walked away calling for the first years to follow him. Some minutes later they got their very first sight of Hogwarts castle.

"Sheesh! Hermione, Harry was right," Harry whispered in her ear as they tried to take in the amazing sight.

As the first years walked into the Great Hall for the first time Hermione was again struck by the fact that words from a book could never truly describe the sights, the amazing ceiling, the long student filled tables and the large head table where all the teachers sat waiting, the sounds of dozens of low murmuring voices were all so much more vivid than any description would ever be able to convey.

Ron Weasley was being a pain as he kept trying to talk to Harry. He had been annoying them all day long and then he made a bad mistake when in his eagerness to talk to Harry he pushed Hermione out of the way nearly knocking her off her feet. Harry's responce was both immediate and forceful, he grabbed the Weasley by the front of his robes, "Weasel if you want to make through the first year and the rest of your time here, then keep the hell away from my Hermione and me, OR ELSE."

Hermione having steadied herself was looking around taking everything in when Harry gently poked her ribs, Aunty Minnie was reaching the end of the F's and would be calling Hermione's name quite soon. Both Harry and Hermione shared a puzzled look when Minerva finished with the G's and moved on to the H's.

Hermione was becoming worried wondering if her letter had somehow been a mistake, had someone missed her name from the list. Before she realised just how far down the list of first years they were, auntie Minnie was calling out.

"Harry Potter,"

Hermione watched as Harry walked to the stool and placed the old sorting hat on his head. A few seconds later the tear in the rim of the hat opened and it yelled for all to hear.

"Gryffindor,"

Harry walked back to stand next to her with a worried frown on his face, he could not figure out why Hermione had not been called to be sorted.

Aunty Minnie was giving them both an odd sort of pleading look as she turned to take a sip of water from a glass.

"Hermione Potter," she called.

Hermione stood frozen to the spot, not quite sure what was happening, wondering if it was her that Minerva was calling or was there some one else named Hermione among them.

"Hermione Potter," Minerva called again flicking her eyes quickly at Hermione.

Hermione knew exactly what the look meant but could not bring her self to believe it, Harry had seen the look as well, he knew that with all those people there only he and Hermione would notice it, he gently prodded Hermione forward hoping that nobody had seen his slight push.

Hermione walked forward in a sort of daze and placed the hat on her head. "Ah, the other half, clever enough to be a Ravenclaw, but I think it had best be," the voice of the hat in her head said pausing.

"Gryffindor,"

Minerva removed the hat and Hermione slowly walked back to Harry who instantly took her hand into his. They had just about recovered their senses when Weasley Ron was called and then sorted.

~*~*~*~*~

Albus Dumbledore sat idly musing over past pupils when ever he recognised a name that was called out. He had been to so many sorting ceremonies he no longer really paid any attention unless a remembered name came up, his head did however lift when he heard the name Harry Potter called, he stared at the young fit and strong looking boy sitting with the sorting hat on his head and he wondered how it had been possible for the boy to be back in Britain without any of his detectors or his spies finding out.

Albus missed the small excitement that came with the next name to be sorted, he was much to busy revising his plans now that Harry Potter was within his reach, he decided he would send a note to Mr Potter requesting a short audience. Then I can find out where he has been, and I can start putting things back to how they should be, with this thought and his note to Harry written, Albus listened once again to Minerva as she called out the last name on the list.

~*~*~*~*~

Minerva removed the magic seal on the magically prepared scroll she held; on it were all the names of the new first year students. Slowly unrolling the scroll as she moved down the list she hesitated when she could not see Hermione's name amongst the G's. A slight feeling of discomfort filled her stomach as she continued down the list. When she looked down and saw Harry's name immediately followed by Hermione's she knew exactly what the two gold bands that had appeared at the hand fastening were. She prayed that Hermione would say nothing; she did not know just how far Albus would go in his attempts to retain some sort of control over Harry.

She knew for sure that she had just spent the past two years secretly visiting and teaching the two children and why; she also knew the reason for the secrecy was the fear of what might happen if Albus should find out where Harry was. She did not trust Albus Dumbledore the way she had before, how could she trust someone who knew exactly how the boy had been treated yet did nothing about it and was willing to send the boy back to the hell he had been taken from.

Minerva prayed the relief in her voice would go unnoticed when Hermione was sorted into Gryffindor with out anyone bringing up the fact she had the same surname as the great Harry Potter.

Her relief was short lived when as soon as she had finished the sorting Albus handed her a note to pass to Harry. Albus was about to try taking control of Harry once again, she did not know how she knew it but she did.

As the feast got under way Minerva wracked her brain trying to find some way to warn Harry, it was when she dropped her fork a little heavily on to her plate and the gravy splashed on to the note Albus had given her to pass on that the idea came to her. While Albus was in a discussion with professor Flitwick, Minerva carefully scratched out a short message on the front of the note using the gravy as her ink and her fork as the quill.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry and Hermione were deep in thought as they ate their meal, both wondering what had happened and yet they were both quite sure of the answer. Somehow at the betrothal, instead of being betrothed they had ended up married. Hermione knew that the marriage would not be legal in Muggle eyes, but here in the wizarding world a marriage was a magically binding contract and therefore marriage could not be entered into illegally, nor could it simply be walked out of like in the muggle world, divoce and magic did not and could not exist together, a magical contract was for life.

They needed to talk, she knew that, but she also knew that Aunty Minnie had not given her that look for no reason; she also knew she had seen some fear in aunty Minnie's eyes when she had seen Hermione Potter written on the parchment. It was very obvious to Hermione that they could not talk about it at the dining table with so many people listening; they would just have to wait.

As the meal was finished and the slower of the eaters pushed away their empty plates the headmaster stood and began his welcome speech, telling them about the places and things that were out of bounds or not allowed neither Harry nor Hermione were listening, they were waiting an opportunity to have their much needed talk.

Aunty Minnie tapped Harry on the shoulder as she carefully placed a note in his hand, with a quick flick of her eyes to Hermione she let the girl know she wanted her to read something on the note. Harry began to open the note as Minerva walked away; Hermione noticed the faint words on the front of the note and nudged Harry.

Harry having read the letter handed it to Hermione, "The head master wishes to see me in his study," he said as he gave her a rather meaningful look.

Hermione carefully read the near invisible words on the front of the note 'Both of you meet me on the front lawn, before going anywhere else.'

Sitting back and listening to the end of the headmasters introduction of a professor Quirrell. Hermione managed to whisper to Harry to go nowhere without her. They both sat and watched as the red headed prefect called the Gryffindor first years to follow him; dutifully they rose with the others and followed them out of the great hall. That was where they turned the opposite way, while the others made their way up the main staircase, Hermione and Harry dodged out of the main door and down the steps.

Looking around Hermione decided they were alone and pulled the invisibility cloak from her blouse, once they were safely hidden from view she cast a silencing spell over them so that they could talk.

"We're married," they chorused then gaped at each other for a minute.

"I'm not sorry," Harry said suddenly "I don't care who made the mistake, I am not sorry."

Hermione looked into his green eyes "Neither am I Harry, but it does mean we have some huge problems."

Harry was about to say something when they heard Aunty Minnie's voice whisper their names right behind them, turning they saw that she was just a few feet away but had been unable to see or hear them, Hermione cancelled the silencing charm.

"Here Aunty Minnie," Hermione whispered

""Ah good, quickly follow me," Minerva said as she walked away from in front of the main doors.

Once out of sight of the doors Minerva stopped to admire the rose garden "Where on earth did you get that cloak, no never mind I can guess, Sirius. Harry I will escort you up to the heads office shortly but first you should know…"

"We're married," they chorused once again.

"Yes it would seem so, the magical address system doesn't make those kind of mistakes, the question is what are we to do, more to the point what are you to do, it's not something we want the world to know and yet we wont be able to keep it secret. As soon as you walk into Gryffindor tower there will appear a door to the married quarters, I don't think they have been used this century," Minerva said worriedly.

"What do you think the head master wants me for?" Harry asked voicing his most pressing concern.

"He will probably try to re-establish his plans for your future, he wants you under his control," Minerva said sad that Dumbledore had sunk so low.

"Then he will be in for a shock Aunty Minnie, Hermione put the same protection on me that Sorcha put on her and you, there is only one person in the world who can tell me what to do, and I know she would never do anything to hurt me," Harry said as he gave Hermione a gentle squeeze.

"Harry, please don't lose your temper with him," Minerva pleaded.

"Shall I go with Harry? I can use the cloak," Hermione said as they turned back toward the School.

"I don't think that is wise, I'm almost sure those spectacles allow him to see through them," Minerva said as they reached the steps. "I will take Harry to the heads office and tell Albus that Harry got a little lost."

As Hermione walked with Harry and Minerva toward the gargoyle that guarded the heads office she heard Sorcha's voice in her head "Use your magic child."

Wondering what the voice could mean Hermione decided to do as it suggested, having fallen back a little she concentrated on her magic doing what ever it was she needed, just a few seconds later Hermione Potter vanished.

Harry and Minerva wondered where Hermione had gone, they had not noticed her vanish as they were intent on the gargoyle. Harry shrugged his shoulders, he had expected Hermione to put up some sort of fight so that Harry would allow her to accompany him up to see Dumbledore.

Minerva said the password "Pear drops," then walked up the spiral stairs with Harry, she knocked on the door and then she showed Harry in.

Albus welcomed Harry but made it quite clear that Minerva should leave.

"So Harry, where have you been keeping yourself these days?" Dumbledore began.

Harry chuckled to himself, he had read quite enough to know when someone was trying to manipulate the conversation "Oh mainly at home and at school," he answered, "though uncle did take us to France last year, mind you I think I much preferred Spain the year before."

"You said your uncle took you to France, who did you go with?" Albus thought he was bound to get some where now.

"Oh just my uncle, aunt, and my cousin," Harry replied

"So how is your uncle Vernon," Albus asked in his grandfatherly tone.

"Alright I suppose," Harry quipped "is there any special reason you wished to see me sir because I am feeling very tired."

Dumbledore decided that Harry was not going to tell the truth, he knew for a fact that Vernon had not seen Harry for over two years; it was time to use legilimens to find out what he wanted to know, and to plant a few new ideas into Mr Potters head. He stared hard into Harry's eyes, his twinkling blue eyes glinting deceptively for a while before they began to lose their shine and look blank. Hermione almost burst out laughing when she realised what was happening.

"Harry," she whispered "tell him to sit in the middle of his desk."

Hermione's voice made him jump up from his chair, and Harry was really shocked to hear what Hermione told him to do, but did as she asked. He watched fascinated as Albus Dumbledore headmaster of the greatest school of witchcraft and wizardry climbed on to his desk and sat in the middle.

"Oh this is really going to be fun," Hermione said now laughing "tell Dumbledore he is to crow like a rooster every time he walks into the great hall."

Harry scratched his head wondering what exactly was happening but did as Hermione told him, following her directions he then told Dumbledore to sit back down at his desk and to wake up.

"So where did you say you lived?" Dumbledore tried again.

"At home sir, with my aunt, uncle, and cousin," Harry replied still wondering what was going on, but beginning once again to put the pieces together.

Dumbledore found himself wondering what he had wanted to ask Harry but being unable to remember he stood up "Well that will be all for now Harry, I just wanted to welcome you to Hogwarts."

Harry was about to say something when Hermione poked him in his back "Right, good night sir," Harry managed to say as he turned to leave.

Walking down the staircase Harry could feel Hermione right next to him, he gave his glasses a rub then felt to his right, his hand touched Hermione who giggled.

"Mind where you put your hands Harry Potter."

Once they reached the corridor Hermione reappeared, "How did you do that?" Harry gasped.

"I have absolutely no idea, and I have no idea how you managed to hypnotise the headmaster," Hermione said still chuckling.

In the next corridor they were joined by Aunty Minnie who asked what Albus had said, when Harry told her what had happened she could not believe her ears. Hermione explained to her what hypnosis was and how the Muggles used it to help people and also as a means of fun, Minerva was amazed she had never heard of aunt Sorcha ever doing anything similar.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry and Hermione were shown the way to Gryffindor tower by Aunty Minnie and just as she had predicted there was a separate door in the wall between the two staircases that led up to the dorm rooms.

Hermione opened the door and was followed in by Harry, the room was nothing fancy just an extra large bedroom with a large double bed in the centre, their two trunks were placed one either side of the bed. One half of the room was fitted out like a small study with desk and chairs, and a red leather sofa in front of a small fireplace.

Hermione suggested that they take their trunks and move them up to the normal dormitories. To avoid any suspicion they would have to continue as a betrothed couple for now.

Each night for the next two weeks Harry and Hermione had to lug their trunks up the stairs to the separate dorm rooms. Neville asked what was going on so Harry said he thought it was maybe Dumbledore getting his own back, a tale that Neville was quite happy to accept.

By the second weekend though, both Hermione and Harry were becoming sick of living out of their trunks, they could not take anything out and hang it in their wardrobe because by nightfall all their possessions were back in the room down stairs, it really was becoming a nuisance.

On Friday night two tired and slightly annoyed eleven year olds were starting to once again collect their trunks. Harry dropped his trunk at the foot of the huge double bed and lay back on the bed "I give up," he declared to the ceiling.

Hermione followed suit, "Me too," she announced lying down beside him.

They fell asleep fully clothed on top of the bed that night, by midweek the following week they were getting changed into their pyjamas in the bathroom and climbing into bed sleeping side by side. They had lived together for two years, had fallen asleep in each others rooms more than once and they did not feel the least bit embarrassed in front of each other. On the third morning they woke up in the same bed Hermione was spooned around Harry, she found his back warm and strangely calm and comforting.

Sleeping in the same bed was the only time Harry and Hermione acted like a married couple as each night Hermione snuggled up to Harry and fell asleep listening to his heart beat, while Harry held her in his arms. The rest of the time they simply lived as boyfriend, girlfriend, the betrothed couple of Gryffindor.

~*~*~*~*~

Albus Dumbledore had just entered the entrance hall on his way to the great hall; he was amazed at how many students now woke early for breakfast. They were only into the second week of the term yet every morning this week the hall was packed with students and teachers, even old Filch was sitting at a table. Albus decided he had never known anything like it in his fifty years as headmaster.

Fred and George Weasley ran into the hall and headed straight for Harry and Hermione. Harry was now the Weasley twin's idol. He had done a prank on the head master that they could only dream of doing, they had found out about it on the second morning back at school when they had found both Harry and Hermione impatiently watching the main door. They occasionally chuckled but no matter who spoke they both refused to remove their watching eyes from the doors.

The twins had known instantly that it was something to do with Harry when the headmaster walked into the great hall and suddenly burst out crowing like an old rooster.

As soon as the headmaster had finished his cock crow, Hermione and Harry usually left the great hall holding their sides as they tried not to laugh out loud. Today though some thing was different and the twins wondered what Harry had done this time, they did not have long to wait long.

Severus Snape potions professor walked into the great hall and instantly began to leap about like a monkey, grunting and making odd noises he wandered toward the head table swinging his arms as he scratched himself under his arm pits, leaping on and off the tables as he made his way the legnth of the hall accompanied by the roaring laughter of the entire school.

In spite of the sound of hysterical laughter coming from all around them George heard Harry whisper "Don't mess with Harry or Hermione Potter."

Once George had heard Harry he had all the proof he needed that Harry was indeed the greatest prankster of all time, and by lunchtime every student in the school knew it was Harry that had exacted some revenge on Snape.

That evening Albus Dumbledore began to realise he had been the subject of a prank, though he could find no way to implicate anyone in particular. He had only seen Harry up close recently and that was only the once, and though he could not remember all they had spoken about he knew that Harry had had no opportunity to touch him or to add any potion to a drink, it had to be some one else. The question was who, and who was going to be brave enough to tell him why or what had been done.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

.

The life of Harry Potter, and my part in it.

.

Part Eight

.

Sirius Black, god father of Harry Potter, had quite a good deal to think about as he arrived home at number twelve Grimmauld place. He had just spent the day in Diagon Alley doing some shopping for his food store. While there he remembered the day he had spent escorting Hermione Granger and her parents around Diagon Alley as they purchased all the necessary equipment required for first year pupils of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. They had left the Granger house together early that morning, leaving Harry at home studying.

It had been Harry's idea that they go without him, having decided that his first entry back into the world of magic should be a surprise for those he had been hidden from for the past two years. Together Hermione and Harry had decided he would make the journey to Hogwarts on the express train as Harry Granger, the name he had used for the past two years. Helped by Hermione's charm hiding his scar he felt certain that he could keep every thing secret until the sorting where they would know into which house they would be placed.

It was none of these things that now had Sirius in deep thought; it wasn't even the things Arthur Weasley had told them, it was something Hermione had mentioned earlier the day they were shopping, something that he himself had never before considered until today.

He remembered Hermione's words as they had left the book shop having bought the required reading for the first year at Hogwarts. "Sirius according to this book," Hermione waved a copy of Hogwarts a history in front of his face "it says that the headmaster Albus Dumbledore, is the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, Order of Merlin, First Class, and Grand Sorcerer."

Sirius looked at the girl who had been the instrument of both his and Harry's freedom "Yes that's true," was all he could think to say.

"Well if this book is correct then I wonder why, as the head of the lawmakers the one who is supposed to see that the law is upheld, why did Dumbledore leave you in prison without a trial, isn't it his job to make sure that the laws are followed and under that law all people should get a fair trial?" she asked thoughtfully.

Sirius could see by her eyes she had already come to a conclusion, "I think he knew you had not had a trial, I think he did it on purpose so that you would not be set free, that way he could keep his control of Harry, What do you think?"

Now that he had had a lot of time to think about everything, it did seem a little odd that James and Lily would have kept the knowledge of a change of secret keeper from the one person they trusted to keep them safe, Albus Dumbledore. As the thoughts filtered through his mind he wondered why he had not realised before the significance of the things she said, had he just brushed them aside because of her age, he vowed to listen more carefully to what she had to say in future.

The implications made Sirius's blood run cold, he needed to go to the ministry and enlist the help of one of his oldest remaining friends, thinking of old friends Sirius remembered that Remus would soon be back in England after his rather lengthy stay in Ireland.

After flooing Arthur to arrange a meeting for lunchtime, Sirius placed his shopping away then made himself a nice cup of tea. After the tea and a short nap Sirius made his way to the Leaky Cauldron where he met with Arthur. Having asked Arthur for his thoughts on the idea that Dumbledore had left Sirius in Azkaban on purpose, and getting a not too enthusiastic agreement that it seemed that Dumbledore had actually orchestrated Sirius's entire imprisonment, the conversation turned to lighter topics. The main one being the almost worship status that the twins bestowed on Harry Potter for pulling some amazing pranks on both the head master and Snape.

When Arthur told Sirius the twins tale about the headmaster crowing like an old rooster every time he entered the great hall, and Severus Snape cavorting about like a deranged monkey every time he went to the great hall they both began to roar with laughter.

~*~*~*~*~

Richard Granger opened the letter from Hermione; taking out the two pieces of parchment, one from Harry and one from Hermione he gave his wife Helen the pick of the two parchments. Walking into his office with the letter from Harry, Richard began to read. He was fascinated by the fact that people in the magical world seemed to have absolutely no protection against or resistance to, the simple thing called hypnosis, though Harry said he and Hermione did not know how he was hypnotising the headmaster or the professor. Hermione thought it maybe something to do with the magical protection Hermione had put on his mind. Richard had tears running down his face at Harry's detailed description of what had happened in the headmaster's office and what had been happening at every meal since.

The laugh faded when he reached and read the last paragraph.

'_There is just one more small thing I need to tell you about, I am not to sure how to tell you this so I will just write it out. I think Hermione and I are married, we think that something went wrong at the betrothal. Both of us feel that we are far too young to be married, though we do also feel we belong together. What do you think we should do? I feel so confused and I know Hermione does too. I wish we could come home and talk with you, I really do. We are both a little homesick as well. We are both trying to carry on as normally as we can but we really do need your advice.' _

_Ps Aunty Minnie sends her best wishes._

_Harry_.

Richard flopped down into his comfy old chair "Oh my, Married, they're only kids," he gasped out.

~*~*~*~

Sorcha sat in her old rocking chair gently swaying back and forth, chuckling to her self she closed her eyes… Hermione was just getting ready for bed while Harry was still reading the book in an attempt to keep pace with Hermione… Minerva was pacing her office clasping and unclasping her hands then rubbing them down her skirt as though trying to wipe away the sweat…

Helen Granger was talking to Richard about their children being married and wondering what the implications might be…

Drawing on her power Sorcha waved her hands in opposite circles while chanting quietly under her breath. She stopped the movement and the chanting as she heard several small popping sounds out side her little cottage.

"Come children, come in," she called to the rather startled people out side.

Harry looked at Hermione then at the adults around them, then with a quick shrug he took hold of Hermione's hand and opened the door to the cottage, they were followed inside by Minerva then Helen, Richard closed the door behind him as he joined the small gathering.

Sorcha glanced at them from her rocking chair "Seems I forgot one," she said before she renewed her chant and waved her arm, there was a slight pop outside "ah that's better," she said as someone knocked on the door.

Richard opened the door to be faced by Sirius, who was about to ask where he was, looking totally surprised Sirius joined the rest of them, as he did so a semicircle of chairs appeared all facing Sorcha who indicated they should sit.

Once they were all sitting, without giving them time for questions Sorcha Began, "It seems that dozy old fool Herrewed tied the wrong knot at the betrothal, as we can't undo a magical wedding that leaves us with very few choices, and if these two young ones do indeed wish to be married in the future, then it leaves us with no choices at all, so do any of you have any ideas."

"Can't we get them divorced then let them remarry when they are old enough?" Richard asked truly puzzled.

"We can't do that; if the magical contract is broken by an attempted divorce it can never be renewed. They could never marry again even if they survived breaking a magical contract. So divorce is out unless you want them miserable for the rest of their lives," Sirius replied.

"Hermione and I, we know something went wrong at the ceremony and we are now married, but we are going to carry on as if we are just betrothed. Now Hermione is known at school as Hermione Potter it seems that everyone thinks we are distant cousins or some thing," Harry explained.

"So do either of the families have any reason they don't want these two married at some time in the future?" Sorcha asked looking from Richard to Helen then Sirius.

When there was no reply Sorcha looked at Minerva "As there is no reason they should be separated I am going to give you a spell to cast over Hogwarts, it will prevent any awkward questions about their quarters.

Now there is some thing else I want to talk about, it seems Hermione's power is growing faster than I expected. She was able to alter the protection spell on Harry so that anyone trying to read his mind becomes subject to his will for several seconds. It also seems that these two young ones have made good use of this and have planted suggestions that have remained powerful enough to make the recipient actually carry out the suggestion repeatedly, so far they have used this power for a little fun and maybe some retribution. I want you all to think of any way this power can help to keep both Harry and Hermione safe, if you think of anything concentrate on me and I will know."

Hermione looked a little bewildered for a second "So do we just keep acting as a betrothed couple?"

"Yes child, you will know when the time is right to become man and wife," Sorcha replied, "Now it is time for you to return to your homes."

Sorcha waved her arms again and chanted under her breath, a quick flash told her they had gone, opening her eyes she looked at Minerva, "Come Min, I need to teach you my spell."

Minerva sat at the feet of her great aunt as Sorcha placed her hands on Minerva's head, the slight tingling that always accompanied her aunts 'lessons' lasted a little longer than was normal but then it faded away and Minerva stood up.

"I'll cast it as soon as I get back, does it matter where I cast it from?" she asked.

"No child not really, though it would work quicker if cast outside on the grounds," Sorcha said.

Just a few seconds later Minerva was back in her quarters exactly where she had been before.

~*~*~*~

Albus Dumbledore sat at his desk; Professor Severus Snape sat on the opposite side and shifted uncomfortably before he spoke.

"Headmaster, might I enquire why you crow like an old cockerel every time you enter the great hall, is it some part of a mysterious magical ritual that I know nothing of?"

Albus looked up in surprise, he was about to say something scathing to Severus when he paused, "I'm afraid I can not tell you the reason Severus, now if there is any other matter you wish to discuss."

Severus Snape let what might possibly pass for a smile grace his lips as he shook his head and stood to leave, "If you need any help with your crowing, I'm always willing to learn new enchantments, headmaster," he said before turning to leave.

Dumbledore watched as his potions master left the room "So it sounds as though the Weasley boys have been at work again," he chuckled, now he knew what he did to have everyone whispering behind his back. "A simple detection charm should do the trick and then in the morning I can watch the disappointed students as they turn to look at Fred and George."

Rubbing his hands together Albus Dumbledore packed away his parchments and retired to his own private quarters. Three hours later a rather tired and disgruntled Albus climbed into his bed, he had tried every charm he knew and he had been unable to discover what made him crow like an old cockerel as Snape had so delicately put it. Having decided it was time to sleep he cheered himself just a little with the thought that at least he could watch Snape cavorting about like a deranged monkey.

~*~*~*~

Harry received the invitation to visit the headmaster early the next morning, he had no idea what it was about and he didn't intend on going alone, not that Hermione would have let him. Besides they still had a task to complete before breakfast. Hermione sat hunched over a small cauldron stirring a potion as he read the short invite out to her, "This one is ready now, we just have to leave it some where dark to mature for at least twelve hours and then it will be ready for use," she said as she ladled the potion from the small cauldron into a bottle.

Hermione passed Harry the bottle and he stored it at the bottom of his trunk, turning around he saw her begin to gently mix a second potion.

"Right I'm ready for the blood now," she almost whispered as she carried on mixing.

Harry walked over to stand over the cauldron and with a rather large and sharp needle having closed his eyes prodded his finger, he then stood and watched as his blood dripped into the mixture.

"Another change of history in the making," she said as the mixture suddenly became crystal clear, "a few drops of this to destroy his spirit and our first real task will be done."

Together they tidied away the things they had been using, making sure to leave no trace of what they had been doing, once Hermione was satisfied with every thing they made their way toward Dumbledore's office, as they approached the gargoyle Hermione became invisible once again.

Harry entered Dumbledore's office pausing as he did so to say hello to the rather brightly coloured bird sitting perched next to a bookcase, having greeted the bird he looked at the door as though just remembering he had not shut it, "Sorry," he said to the headmaster as he pushed the door closed gently.

"So Harry, lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked smiling in a grandfatherly way.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

.

The life of Harry Potter, and my part in it

.

Part nine

.

"So Harry, lemon drop?" Dumbledore asked smiling in a grandfatherly way.

Harry declined the offer and remained standing next to the large red and gold phoenix. Dumbledore looked somewhat uncomfortable, as though he had something to say but didn't quite know how to say it.

"Take a seat Harry," Dumbledore said after sitting himself. Harry took the offered seat and wondered what the old headmaster wanted this time.

It did not take him very long to find out.

"So how are you settling in, I suppose you have made several friends?" Albus asked.

"I'm a little homesick, but that's to be expected I think, other than that I am fine sir," Harry answered warily.

"I have heard you have formed a relationship with a Miss Potter, is this correct?" Dumbledore asked the smile on his face never fading.

"Yes sir we are best friends, Hermione and me," Harry answered asking himself why the old headmaster should be interested in his relationships.

"Best friends eh, well you know there are several witches from good families that might be interested in you as future husband material. Some whose parents might be happy to have them betrothed to you, there is a particularly pretty young thing named Ginevra Weasley, she would make an excellent choice, you might like to think about that," Dumbledore said as he steepled his fingers and began to stare in to Harry's eyes.

Harry was really annoyed that the headmaster should even think too suggest he think about other girls. While Dumbledore stared into his eyes Harry stood up and said "As I am already Betrothed to Hermione you can tell those parents to get lost, and if you think I will ever replace Hermione, then you sir can go jump in the lake," that said he stormed out of the office, Hermione was right on his heels and Harry could feel the anger coming from her.

Neither of them noticed the headmaster follow them from his office, then turn down toward the main entrance.

The fifth year class that stood out side on the lawns as they studied care of magical creatures all watched in surprise as the headmaster walked right through the middle of the class without a word. They were even more surprised when for no apparent reason Dumbledore jumped into the cold murky water of the black lake.

Albus Dumbledore floundered about in the water for several seconds as he tried to figure out how he had got there before slowly climbing from the water. As he did so he was so deep in thought he never thought to use a drying charm on him self, instead he squelched his way back up to his office. Determined to find out what had happened Albus pulled out his pensieve and then he delicately drew from his mind the memories of the past half hour, watching the memory Dumbledore could see nothing that could have made him jump in the lake, he was just about to give up with the memory when he heard Harry's voice once again telling him to go jump in the lake, Albus Dumbledore yet again found himself floundering in the cold dark waters of the lake. After several more dunking's in the lake Albus finally decided that maybe checking the memory was not such a good idea.

~*~*~*~

Minerva was even more worried about what Dumbledore was planning now that Hermione and Harry had told her about him mentioning Harry getting betrothed to Ginny Weasley, there was a lot more going on than she knew about and she could think of no way to find out just what the devious old man was up to.

Minerva smiled as Hermione told her that there was a story on the grapevine that Dumbledore had been seen jumping in to the lake by a full class of students, she mentioned that Harry had suggested he do just that very thing the same morning.

Minerva was also worried about Hermione who had had a strange almost vengeful look in her eye when Harry related the tale of the mornings meeting. She just hoped that her favourite pupil was not about to do some thing rash to the daft old man.

~*~*~*~

Hermione sat in their room watched by Harry as she wrote a letter, "Who you writing too," he wanted to know as she paused and gently sucked on the end of the Quill.

"Give me a minute and I'll read it out to you," Hermione replied as she added another line to the letter, "there all done, now all we need to do is go to the owlery and get it posted."

Hermione lifted the letter, cleared her throat and began to read…

'_Madam Bones, it is with some regret that I write, but I feel it is my duty to alert some one to a few facts. As you are the only person of authority with a relative at Hogwarts School that I know of, I chose to reveal what I know to you in the hope that you are able to act._

_Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape are and have been using Legilimency on the children in order to control their future activities, even going so far as to choose their life partners through subtly implanted thoughts._

_My immediate concern at this time however is with regard to a priceless artefact that is being kept supposedly hidden on the third floor at the school; it is the same artefact that was removed from Gringotts vault number 713. The same dark wizard who attempted to steal the item from Gringotts is even now at the school in the guise of a timid professor Quirrell. To reveal the identity of the dark wizard it will be necessary to remove the turban that Quirrell wears. I should warn you that if confronted Quirrell is extremely powerful and dangerous, even more of a worry to me is the fact that the item is being guarded by a Cerberus type creature, yes a rather vicious three headed dog, the only thing that is keeping this animal from the children is a simple Alohomora spell known to almost every pupil at the school, there are other deadly items including a vicious deadly plant, and several poisons, also guarding the artefact._

_Sincerely a Worried citizen_.'

"So what do you think?" she asked as she placed the parchment back on the table.

Harry sat with a look of concentration on his face, then taking a quick breath he replied "I think you should put the lines about the headmaster and Snape at the end, it should sound better."

Hermione turned to study the letter "I think you might be right," she said as she waved her wand over the parchment magically moving the lines. "There," she said as she blew gently on the wet ink.

Harry stood to fetch Hedwig his owl but Hermione stopped him, "We should use a school owl, that way no one will know who sent the letter, we want it to appear like an adult sent it."

Harry gave a little sheepish grin before saying "Oh yeah, good idea."

Not wanting to be seen sending the letter Hermione and Harry made the slow journey up to the owlery under the invisibility cloak; they only had one tiny scare as they made their way through the castle. Mrs Norris the caretaker's cat stopped on the stairs just a few yards in front of them and for a few seconds she stared straight at them. Hermione wondered if the cat could see them or maybe even smell them, after a few seconds however the cat resumed her patrol of the school corridors.

Once they reached the owlery Hermione picked a simple brown owl and having called it to her she tied the letter to its leg before taking it to a window and wishing it a safe flight as it launched itself on its way to the ministry.

~*~*~*~

"I tend to agree with you Sirius, it does seem that Dumbledore neglected his duty where you were concerned, but there is no evidence that what he did was intentional, and as you know with someone in his position I would need some sort of proof," Amelia Bones said sadly

Sirius turned to his friend sitting in the only other chair in the office "Any ideas Remus?"

Remus Lupin looked at his best friend and shook his head "Unless we get a miracle it looks like the old git is going to get away with everything."

Amelia was just about to add something to the conversation when she was interrupted by the arrival of a brown owl. "I won't take a second," she said as she removed the letter from the owl's leg, sitting back she began to read. "It seems we may just have that miracle," she said as she pressed a button on her desk.

Sirius who from where he was sitting could see the letter recognised the hand writing almost instantly, he was about to make a comment but then noticed the lack of a signature; Hermione obviously did not wish to be known as the sender.

Amelia Bones noticed Sirius trying to read the letter, and after thinking about it for a second she passed it to him.

"Whats the crazy old coot up to now?" he said handing the letter to Remus.

Remus paled as he read the letter "It could be disastrous if one of those things got loose in a school full of children."

~*~*~*~

Albus Dumbledore sat down at breakfast with a rather heavy head cold and a pepper up potion; he was still wondering what had possessed him the day before to jump repeatedly into the freezing cold water of the lake. Adding that to the fact that he was still getting the urge to crow like a rooster every time he walked into the great hall he began to think that maybe, just maybe, he was going senile like some old Muggle's tend to do.

He looked around the hall at the pupils eating breakfast and wondered if he would miss being headmaster or would he forget it all.

He was rudely brought out of his wonderings when the main doors to the hall opened and several law officers led by Amelia Bones entered. As the Aurors began to line up around the walls Madam Bones marched up to the lectern used by Albus when giving a speech.

"If the staff will remain seated, this is just a new ministry trial security measure, prefects would you kindly lead your house mates to your dorms, thank you."

Albus stood and demanded to know what was going on, "As I said the ministry is carrying out a security trial," Madam Bones answered as a few more officers marched into the hall. One of the officers marched up to Madam Bones and whispered some thing in her ear, "Right you all know what to do," she said as she turned to address the staff.

"We need to test and evaluate the time it would take to evacuate the school in an emergency, so if you would all like to gather outside on the front lawn we can then begin the test, Albus if you would lead the way."

With the staff gathered on the lawn outside the main entrance Madam Bones pulled out a large watch from one of her many pockets.

"Right Albus if you could begin the evacuation," she said holding the watch up.

~*~*~*~

Hermione and Harry had missed all the excitement in the main hall as they were at that moment busy in the defence against the dark arts classroom.

They were busy painting a potion on all the exits from the room, once they had painted confinement runes with the clear potion everywhere, Hermione walked around the room and placed a very intricate charm on each of the windows hopefully preventing them from being broken by anything short of a nuclear bomb. They were now ready to face Quirrell after their next class if they had too. As soon as they had finished they began to make their way up to the Gryffindor common room.

They had almost reached the portrait of the fat lady and the entrance to Gryffindor tower when they heard the headmasters' voice boom out "All Prefects quickly as you can would you please lead all students out of the castle and assemble on the front lawns in your houses thank you."

~*~*~*~

As the houses lined up on the lawns professor Quirrell noticed that a significant part of the Auror force was slowly gathering around him. With his suspicions raised he decided now was a good time to make a break for it, turning quickly and preparing to run he saw that any escape route was blocked. Thinking quickly Quirrell reached out toward the students and grabbed the first one he reached, pulling out his wand he pointed it at the throat of Hermione.

"All of you stay back or I kill the girl," Quirrell yelled his nervous stammer and twitch suddenly a thing of the past.

Amelia Bones ordered her men to step back and to allow the wizard a clear passage. Quirrell backed away from the Aurors dragging Hermione with him; he came to a sudden stop when the small voice of a boy came from behind him.

"Let my betrothed go and I might just let you live," Harry said with just a little shake in his voice.

Quirrell spun round and let out an eerie laugh, "Ah Mr Potter, now just suppose I don't let her go, suppose you get out of my way."

While Quirrell talked to Harry, Hermione managed to free her wand from her pocket, not able to get a good aim at Quirrell due to how he held her she decided a stinging hex to his hand would have to do, with a quick flick of her wand she hit the back of Quirrell's hand with the hex making him jump. Just a second later she lay on the floor where the stung professor had thrown her.

"Move Hermione," Harry yelled as he pointed his wand at Quirrell.

Hermione rolled away and sent a reducto spell at Quirrell as she did so. The spell missed Quirrell but hit his turban blowing it from his head, there were multiple gasps of horror as the face of Voldemort was revealed on the back of Quirrell's head.

"Kill the boy," the evil looking face yelled at Quirrell.

Quirrell however was not quick enough; Harry had already cast a disarming spell at the possessed tutor. Wandless, Quirrell lunged forward only to be met by a very determined Harry Potter. Harry jumped on to the professor and wrapped his small hands around the man's throat. The screams that Quirrell released made Harry let go and back off.

Auror's staff and students watched as the flesh where Harry had touched began to smoke then burn, just a few seconds later Quirrell dropped to the floor dead. Harry collapsed to the ground, most of his energy drained; Hermione meanwhile pulled a small vial from her pocket and threw the contents at the ghostly shape of Voldemort as it left the now dead teacher.

With a horrendous scream Voldemort's destroyed spirit turned into a vapour and quickly blew away across the grass.


	10. Chapter 10

9

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

.

The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

.

Part Ten

.

As Quirrell screamed in agonising pain Harry collapsed onto the ground, his energy almost totally gone. Thanks to the book he had had an idea of what to expect when he grabbed Quirrell, and he had concentrated hard on pushing all his magic into his hands and so onto Quirrell, but some thing odd had happened, he had felt something unusual, something evil that was not a part of himself, he had felt it as it had left his body and joined with the part of Voldemort that had been surviving inside Quirrell.

As Hermione helped him to his feet, his still wobbly legs almost gave way until Neville helped Hermione to hold him up. Madam Pomfrey the school healer pushed her way through the crowd and on reaching Harry she placed her hand on his forehead, finding him a little clammy she ordered he be taken to the hospital wing as soon as possible, she then delved around in her apron pockets until she found what she was looking for, her emergency vial of pepper up potion. Handing the vial to Harry she told him to drink it all down, there were snickers and giggles from several students as jets of steam came from Harry's ears as he swallowed the awful tasting potion, seconds later he was able to stand without help.

Turning to Hermione he whispered "We have to talk, something happened."

Hermione knew instantly that Harry was talking about something that they had not expected, "Okay as soon as we get the chance we will slip away."

~*~*~*~

As the remains of Voldemort's spirit slowly drifted out of sight, every one that was standing near to Harry began to back way from him with a look of fear in their eyes. Even the Auror's moved back a little, every one that is except Hermione and Neville who had both rushed to help Harry back on to his feet.

Dumbledore thought that if this sudden fear of Harry were left to grow all his plans for the hero of the wizard world and their future would be ruined beyond hope; Potter would be worthless to him in his plan to be the most powerful leader in the magical world if this fear gained a foot hold. Stepping toward Madam Bones he took out his wand and placed it to his throat before whispering "Sonorus."

Albus Dumbledore then turned to face his students "Can I have your attention please," his voice boomed out. "What you have just witnessed here is the power of the love a mother had for her son. In dying for Harry his mother placed an ancient protection against Voldemort into the boy's very skin and bones. This protection is only against Voldemort, it will not affect anyone else. That is why Miss Potter and Mr Longbottom are unaffected. You need not be afraid, now if you will all return to your classes in an orderly fashion, thank you."

Sighs of relief and acceptance could be heard as Dumbledore removed the charm on his voice and turned once more to face Madam Bones, who suddenly shouted out "STOP," when the students began to shuffle toward the main door.

Taking out her wand she pointed it at Dumbledore, "I'm sorry Albus but I have to take you in for questioning."

Surrounded by Auror's and thinking it was something to do with Quirrell Dumbledore handed his wand to Madam Bones before taking hold of a portkey held out to him, three seconds later Dumbledore along with several Auror's vanished.

~*~*~*~

A little earlier...

Angela Forrester had led her team of six Auror's up to the third floor while Madam Bones led the rest of the detachment into the great hall. A walk along the long third floor corridor brought her to a locked door, "Well everything as we expected so far," she said to her second in command.

With a simple Alohomora Angela opened the door and cautiously looked inside, having seen what she had been told would be there she closed the door again. "Okay Jess, down to the great hall, tell Madam Bones it's here."

Angela Forester waited patiently for the return of her second in command before she made any move to capture the beast behind the closed door.

Thirty minutes later she and the team walked out of the main entrance to Hogwarts School with a huge three headed dog, it was unconscious and was being levitated by five of the Auror's.

Angela conjured a large cage for the dog to be kept in before she reported to Madam Bones that she had found a huge devil's snare plant blocking the way to the other items on her list, she could only suppose that with the truth of the first two objects being proven, the other items would indeed be there.

Amelia Bones called McGonagall forward and asked her to explain why she had assisted Albus Dumbledore with this stupidity, Minerva quickly explained that Dumbledore had threatened any professor refusing to help would be fired.

This point was verified by the other teachers who were all listening to the exchange, Madam Bones accepted that the staff would not have been in a position to stop Albus, and as she did not know which one of them it was that had sent her the warning letter she declared them all in the clear, there would be no charges against them. Dumbledore how ever would be a different matter.

The last thing Madam Bones did before she left Hogwarts with her Auror detachment was to appoint Minerva as temporary Headmistress until the school governors had been informed of everything, and to instruct her to have all the dangerous obstacles removed so that what ever was being hidden could be destroyed.

~*~*~*~

"How on earth did we get past that thing with some simple music?" Hermione whispered to Harry as she and Neville helped him to rejoin the Gryffindor house students.

Harry shrugged his shoulders, "I have no idea," he said looking at the huge three headed dog.

As soon as Madam Bones had left, the new headmistress instructed the heads of the four houses to lead their students back to their common rooms. She then declared to the whole school that there would be no lessons for the rest of the day. Catching Hermione's eye Minerva let the girl know with just a look that she wished to talk to them and that they should wait where they were until everyone else was back in side the school.

It only took a few minutes for the students to re-enter the school and just a few minutes more before they all began to enjoy their free day. Hermione and Harry waited patiently for the new headmistress to finish talking to Madam Pomfrey about Harry.

"So you two knew about Quirrell?" Minerva asked as she approached them.

Hermione stood hesitating not quite knowing how to explain without telling aunty Minnie about the book, she tried to stammer out an excuse but only managed a few 'er's' before she fell silent.

"I felt him," Harry said after watching Hermione stuttering.

"You felt him?"

"Yes here in my scar, I could feel Voldemort's presence every time I was close to Quirrell," Harry explained as he rubbed at the lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

Minerva stared at Harry's forehead with her mouth open for several seconds, it was a stare that made Harry feel decidedly uncomfortable for some reason.

"It's almost gone," Minerva said as she brushed Harry's fringe to one side "the scar it's just a faint line."

Hermione looked on in surprise as Minerva ran a finger over the now almost invisible scar, the scar which only that morning had looked red, swollen, and painful.

"Harry! Its true, the scar, I can hardly see it," Hermione declared as she too took a closer look at Harry's forehead.

The new development distracted Minerva and she forgot about the questions she had meant to ask as she dismissed the two young Potters and set off for the head masters office. Albus had several books in his private library, books that were not available anywhere else; she needed to study them, to see if she could find an explanation for the sudden change in Harry's famous scar.

~*~*~*~

Hermione was just as intrigued as Minerva about the almost complete healing and disappearance of Harry's scar. Having made a quick visit to their dorm to collect their book bags and the book. Hermione led the way to the closest unused class room. A few silencing and locking charms were placed on the classroom door before Harry tried to explain how he had felt a part of him that was not really a part of him had left his body and had joined with Voldemort.

After more than two hours looking through the book that fully covered 187 years of Harry Potters life, for a clue about what had happened Harry looked up "Hermione, I think I might have something."

Harry placed his copy of the open book in front of her and she began to read from where Harry had his finger.

'_And so before the final confrontation between the death eaters and those now in the castle who were brave enough to stand up to them, I was in the company of the souls of my parents, Sirius, and Remus, as I walked in to Voldemort's presence, with out even taking my wand from my pocket I stood and waited for the death curse, I could quite easily have evaded it but my reason for being there was to save the lives of everyone left inside the school._

_The green light of the spell hit me and I fell to the ground quite dead, I woke up and found myself in the company of Albus Dumbledore and a strange ugly child like thing. I found out later that the thing had been a Horcrux, a piece of that evil monsters soul had been attached to my own soul and now it lay whimpering in an odd fashion because it knew it had reached the end. I was given a choice then whether to go on to the next great adventure or to return to finish Voldemort once and for all, once I chose to return to the life I had just left in order to face Voldemort, the piece of him that had spent the last sixteen years living inside me finally died, and I knew for sure I had just killed the last Horcrux. Back in the land of the living I waited for my chance to…'_

Hermione agreed with Harry that the thing that he had felt leave him had been the small part of Voldemort, all they had to work out now was why it had left him this time and then how to verify their findings. Hermione sat back and sighed maybe Sorcha could help, she decided she should really have a talk to Aunty Minnie.

~*~*~*~

Minerva McGonagall sat reading one of Albus Dumbledore's note books, she could not believe the things she was reading, Dumbledore had known all about the way Harry was treated by his aunt and uncle, there was also a reference to the possibility of a Horcrux being attached to the boys soul or magical core because all the tests on Harry's magic had revealed two distinct and separate readings. She was still reading when someone knocked on the door, hastily pushing the note book out of sight she called out "come in."

Hermione led by Harry entered the office and took a seat in front of the desk. Harry stood behind Hermione's chair with his hands on her shoulders.

It did not take Hermione many minutes to explain why they were there.

Harry told about the odd feeling of something leaving him, some thing that had always been with him but was not a real part of him, he found it difficult to explain but he found that aunty Minnie knew exactly what he was talking about.

Minerva nodding her head pulled out the note book once again and read through a few pages as she tried to find out about the test Albus had been doing, finally pleased with what she had found she got up from her chair and opened the door of a glass cabinet and removed a small delicate silver instrument, placing the silver object that resembled a small oval mirror with two twisted pipes running through it from top to bottom, onto the desk. With a quick wave of her wand Minerva stepped back and watched as the pipes released a small red glowing cloud of smoke that very slowly took the shape of a roaring lion.

Reading the book once more Minerva declared that what ever part of Voldemort had been connected to Harry was now gone.

Both the young Potters left the office feeling relieved, it now seemed that Harry would not have to get him self killed in order to defeat Voldemort.

Harry some how felt free, he could not explain how it actually felt although he did try, and even though Hermione knew that what he was talking about was the Horcrux, she could not actually imagine how it must feel to be free from a piece of evil that had been there for nearly all his life.

One week later the day they heard that Dumbledore had been released from custody with just a warning, and had then been fired by the school governors. Minerva was notified that her new position as head mistress had been verified with the full support of all the governors. The first thing Minerva did as official headmistress was to fire Severus Snape, she had complained numerous times to Dumbledore about the mans poor teaching ability and blatant favouritism, and now given the chance she determined to rid the school of him a hire a decent teacher.

Two days later an invisible Hermione followed aunty Minnie and several professors as they dismantled and destroyed the charms and spells that had been placed to protect the philosophers stone. As they entered the very last chamber, the one that the stone was hidden in, Hermione waited just out side the door way until the professors began to descend the stairs toward the large mirror standing at the far end of the chamber. Taking careful aim with her wand she sent a powerful reducto spell that hit the mirror dead centre blowing it in to a million tiny pieces. The philosophers' stone was no more, there was no chance it could be used against Harry in any way. Minerva would notify the owner Mr Flamel and his wife giving them time to put their things in order.

Hermione chuckled as the professors searched the chamber for the culprit who had destroyed the ancient artefact, turning around feeling rather satisfied with having done a good job she made her way back to Harry who as planned was waiting in a disused second floor girl's toilets.

Hermione found Harry sitting on a sink having a discussion with the ghost of a young female student.

"Hello love, come say hi to Myrtle," Harry said as Hermione entered the room.

Hermione stayed with Harry to chat to the strange ghost for quite a while till the growling of Harry's stomach told them it was time to eat. Saying good bye to their new friend Harry and Hermione made their way down to the great hall and lunch.

~*~*~*~

Albus Dumbledore smiled as he walked free from the ministry of magic building. He had had to call in several favours to get the charges of reckless endangerment of school children dropped, now all he had to do was to convince the school governors not to fire him. He thought it would be quite an easy task, but he had forgotten just one thing, one of his most powerful enemies served on the board of governors.

It was a much sadder Dumbledore who left the office of a gloating and happy Lucius Malfoy. To have Dumbledore fired had been one of Malfoys greatest ambitions and he had taken great pleasure in telling the ex headmaster that there was no chance of him ever returning to a job in education.

Not knowing what else to do Albus Dumbledore disapparated to the Weasley home the Burrow, and shared his bad news with his old friend Molly.

Molly Weasley was not a happy woman when she heard his news, it meant that the plan for her daughter to marry Harry Potter was finally and totally doomed to failure, she was even more upset when Albus informed her that Harry was already betrothed to someone, everything they had done had been a waste of time. Over the following days Albus Dumbledore noticed he no longer had the odd compulsion to crow like an old cockerel or the feeling he needed to jump in a lake. It started him wondering about his own mental stability.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the term was quite a good one for both Harry and Hermione, Minerva promoted professor Flitwick to deputy head and then organised for him to teach them advanced duelling techniques in private. With the book to study and two of the professors teaching them Hermione and Harry were soon learning fifth year spells and charms. By the time the Christmas holiday arrived aunty Minnie told them she thought that within the next six months they would if they kept up the pace be ready for the N.E.W.T exams, it was just a pity they were still too young and had to keep their abilities hidden.

The journey to London on the Hogwarts express was spent talking to Neville and the Weasley twins about all that had happened at school. They all got a good laugh as the twins told of the dismissal of Snape. How he had stuttered and then pleaded to be kept on, even if it was only as assistant caretaker. McGonagall had asked Mr Filch how he would like an assistant, he had been quite enthusiastic till he found out it was Snape she was talking about. He had then threatened to go on strike if he had to work with the greasy haired fool who had always looked down on him.

As they left the train with Harry dragging their trunks, Hermione noticed Dumbledore watching them from where he was hiding behind some large boxes and crates. She told Harry she had something she needed to do as she pointed toward the ladies rest room. Running into the ladies Hermione did a quick check to see if anyone could see her; positive she was unobserved she disappeared from sight, just a few seconds later she was on her hands and knees as she tied Dumbledore's shoe laces to one of the large wooden crates he was hiding behind.

Re-appearing from the ladies laughing Hermione joined Harry as he dragged their trunks through the barrier and onto platform nine. They were in the car and well away from the station when Albus Dumbledore picked himself up from the platforms concrete floor; the rather large lump on his forehead was testament to how hard one could fall on their face when both feet refused to move because they were tied to a large heavy object.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

A/Note, this chapter is just here to quickly tell of the period between the end of term and start of the new term, what Hermione and Harry did etc, I hope you don't find it to boring, but remember it is simply here to act as a filler before the next part.

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The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

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Part Eleven

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Eagerly looking forward to a relaxing Christmas at home, the Granger family arrived home from Kings Cross to find Minerva McGonagall waiting on the front door step for them. As soon as they arrived she asked them if they would all be willing to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holiday. She explained to them that as Harry and Hermione were now of school age and attending Hogwarts, they could no longer cover up their training as underage accidental magic. Even with the help of Sorcha the wards that Minerva had placed on the house were no longer strong enough to mask their magic, as it was now far too powerful to hide.

The only way to continue their training would be to do it at Hogwarts and it would be simpler if they all stayed there than if they travelled back and forth.

Minerva apologised for not bringing the subject up earlier but as she was the new head she had to wait to see just who would be remaining at the school during the break, as it was there were no pupils and only three teachers.

After a short family conference it was agreed although grudgingly that they should all go to Hogwarts. Mr and Mrs Granger wearing special bracelets from Minerva that allowed them to see the magical world were eager to see the castle that their two children were living in most of the year. It was something of a privilege as Muggles rarely got to see the castle, and they were the first this century. Helen and Richard packed their suitcases for what was obviously going to be a rather cold but extremely enlightening holiday. With the house locked up and their car locked in the garage Helen and Richard joined Harry and Hermione in catching hold of an old boot, as soon as Minerva took hold of it with them the portkey that the boot was, was activated and took them right into the headmistress's office.

Hermione and Harry moved their trunks back into their quarters while Helen and Richard settled them selves in to the guest quarters they were given. Once they had stowed all their things away they all met up in the great hall. Minerva took the Grangers for a tour of the castle giving them a running commentary as they walked. Both Richard and Helen were amazed at the sights within the ancient castle; the moving paintings absolutely fascinated Richard. Helen nearly fainted when she saw Hermione talking to the ghost of nearly headless Nick; it took some getting used to, to find that there really were such things as real ghosts, even though Hermione had mentioned them in her letters.

At supper Minerva informed them that Hermione and Harry would be having practical lessons for two hours before lunch and one hour after lunch every day of the holiday, after which they would be doing two hours a day in the evenings through out the next term. She was hoping to get them so fit and well trained that they would no longer need to hide from Dumbledore or any death eaters they might meet.

At eleven am the next morning Hermione and Harry met professor Flitwick in the charms classroom. He had with him his cousin who was there to teach them some simple muggle self defence tactics.

Their first two hours was a gruelling mixture of running, push ups and then more running, during the second running session professor Flitwick had them doing charms, hex's and jinx's as they ran. Neither Hermione nor Harry found it an easy task, but they persevered and by the time they had finished their mornings lessons they could perform at least three different spells while on the move.

After lunch and a short rest they joined Minerva and the Grangers in the transfiguration classroom. Minerva had them transfiguring odd items into various weapons, teaching them the spells they needed until they could do the transfiguration without having to think about it. Both Harry and Hermione were getting faster at casting spells, needing much less rest between the charms and spells to rebuild their magical strength. Richard and Helen were absolutely fascinated by all the things that their two young ones could do.

By the Wednesday of their first week of the holiday they were both feeling tired and weary. They had aches and pains all over, but they were gritting their teeth and doing the best they could. Richard joined them on Wednesday for their runs and took them around the black lake before having them run up and down the main stair case all the time practising their charms and transfiguration spells.

Wednesday afternoon they had their first defence against the dark arts lesson. They were both surprised when their teacher turned out to be Sirius, who was accompanied by Remus Lupin. Sirius was quite surprised at just how advanced they were and decided that their next subject should be the patronus spell. It took the entire hour before Harry managed to create a small umbrella of silver mist. Sirius told them it would stop a Dementor temporarily but that was all, they were given the patronus spell to do as home work.

For the rest of Wednesday afternoon and into the evening both Harry and Hermione repeatedly attempted the patronus spell, it was just before bed time when, Hermione and then just a few seconds later Harry, both created a fully corporeal patronus. When Remus who had been walking along the same corridor asked them about it they both admitted to using more or less the same memory to help them feel happy enough to do the spell correctly.

It was the memory of the day when Harry first woke to find himself in the Grangers home and Hermione had held his hand, it was the day their lives changed.

Friday at breakfast Minerva caught them all by surprise when she asked Sirius if he would stand in as the defence against the dark arts teacher until the end of the school year, with a little encouragement from Remus Sirius agreed but insisted he be allowed to run things the way he wanted.

Having had a free weekend to relax and enjoy the company of Helen and Richard properly. Hermione and Harry found themselves being woken up at six-o-clock on Monday morning. Sirius had decided that they would need to increase their physical endurance ability and so he was going to be adding a Muggle lesson to their curriculum, Physical training would take place every morning of the year at six a.m.

Neither Hermione or Harry enjoyed the idea but they had both done the PT lessons in their primary schools so they reluctantly agreed it would help to make and keep them fit, unlike the rest of the wizarding world who hardly ever got any exercise of any kind, few of them even walked more than a few yards, and that was usually when they were in Diagon Alley doing their shopping.

For the rest of their first Christmas holiday at Hogwarts Hermione and Harry spent most of the time doing practical lessons of one sort or another. Remus had bought several books on the strange power of hypnosis and taught Harry how to use this ability as best as he could. Harry discovered that almost all wizard folk who had not grown up in a Muggle family were quite easy to hypnotise.

For the last week of the holiday Minerva, with some persuasion from both the Granger adults and Sirius agreed that all the Granger family should spend the last few days at home as a normal family. Harry and Hermione would get a well deserved rest and the family bond that had become so strong over the previous two and a half years could be renewed and strengthened. Both the children were happy and excited to be going home, even if it was just for a week.

Every morning that week Mr and Mrs Harry Potter woke up at six and went out for a run around the local park, they both found that they actually enjoyed the runs now that they were used to doing them.

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~*~*~*~ At the beginning of the holiday...

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Minerva McGonagall said a silent prayer as she pulled her cloak tighter around her and waited, she was worried about the plans she had discussed that morning with Sirius and Remus, she was not sure that she could persuade the Grangers to spend their Christmas holiday at Hogwarts, she was sure that they would want to spend the time as a family, especially at this time of year.

She knew that all families needed to spend time together to rebuild the family ties. She also knew that Harry Potter, the boy she looked on as almost a son, needed the bond that a good family always seemed to have. More so than most students, her students being away from home and spending most of the next seven years mainly in the company of other children could actually weaken family ties and bonds. She had seen it happen more than once in her teaching career at Hogwarts, not wanting such a thing to happen to the Grangers was what had her worried the most. So with these thoughts drifting around in her head she paced slowly backward and forward across the path that led from the Granger front door down to the road side.

It was with great relief she pulled out the portkey that would take them all back to the great wizard school of Hogwarts, she watched the disappointment but resolute determination on the faces of the two youngest of the Grangers, or as they now were she reminded herself 'the Potters'.

Mr and Mrs Potter being married still surprised her, and she wondered not for the first time how it was possible that the wedding bond had worked for two children who were so very young, Harry was still only eleven, Hermione just a little over twelve.

For the following three weeks Minerva watched with pride as the two children who called her aunty, both took everything they were asked to do in their stride. They never really complained at all and they were learning and improving even faster than she had expected. She had the vague thought that her other students should be so willing and so clever, but then she dismissed the thought, these two young people were special; they were nothing like their peers.

Hermione wanted nothing more than to be able to protect Harry, and in her dedication to this task she was becoming the greatest witch Hogwarts had ever seen. Harry himself simply wanted to please Hermione, it was his way of thanking her for rescuing him from his awful relatives, and he in turn was becoming a wizard to rival Merlin.

~*~*~*~

Sirius and Remus were discussing the patronus's of Hermione and Harry, Remus had just witnessed them in one of the corridors leading to Gryffindor tower, both were corporeal and both were large. Hermione had created a rather beautiful silver doe and Harry had caused Remus to gasp when he created a huge stag. A stag that looked remarkably like his fathers animagus form, and yet Harry could not possibly know about his fathers' secret ability.

"I think we should find a Bogart for them to practice with, that way they will get some idea of the things those evil things can do to a person," Remus said noticing his best friend shiver "I could take those lessons for you padfoot." he added as an after thought.

Sirius reluctantly agreed and the lessons were discussed and planned by the two friends, along with the fitness regime they hoped to begin and continue through the year and even further if possible.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the school year was fairly quiet for both Harry and Hermione, the only really exciting thing that happened outside their lessons was when early in the term they stumbled on a hidden valley while walking around the head of the black lake. Harry had discovered a long since disused and overgrown path that led them to a small stone bridge over the stream that fed the lake. Following the path beyond the stream the two Potters came upon a deserted village, they could tell it had once been a small magical community that had lived there but at first they could find no indication of why the place was deserted.

The small village consisted of fifteen cottages of various sizes and shapes all placed around what must have been a village green. There was a small shop, and a rather odd shaped pub that seemed to resemble the description of the Weasley home described by Harry in 'the book'. It was in the pub that Hermione eventually discovered that the village had been abandoned in the early eighteenth century when Hogsmeade had become much more popular. She found the remains of an old diary that told of the steady decline in customers that finally led to the closure of the pub in 1748.

For the remainder of the term, each weekend they used the village and its buildings as a private place to safely read the book, and to practice the charms and spells they came across in it. Hermione found a fairly large house that still contained a fair amount of furniture and several very old books that she had not seen in the school library.

With equal enthusiasm they both began to read the books after quickly cleaning the down stairs of the house and doing a few repair charms on some of the chairs, Harry named the house 'Potter Palace', which when she looked around at the broken windows and peeling wall paper caused Hermione to laugh long and hard.

Neville Longbottom was invited to join them on their second weekend at Potter Palace and after a little fun playing normal children's games in and around the village Hermione declared Neville mayor of 'Potters Bottom'.

Neville with help from Hermione and occasionally from Harry became much better at doing the spells he had been failing at in the normal classes, Harry read in their book that Neville's problem stemmed from not having his own wand; instead he was using his father's old wand.

At the end of term while travelling home on the Hogwarts express just before they entered London Hermione duplicated Neville's wand and then Harry snapped the duplicate in two, Neville would show his grandmother the broken wand pieces and hopefully be taken to Ollivander's to buy a wand that suited him.

Hermione and Harry spent each weekend of the summer holiday at Hogwarts where they were taught up to N.E.W.T level. In the history of Hogwarts there had never been two more powerful magical people, and each week their power grew. Each morning the Potters rose at six and went out for a run, they had become determined to stay fit.

Minerva marvelled at what could be achieved when Muggle born children began to learn magic two years earlier than they normally would. Neither Harry nor Hermione had reached the age when they would doubt if real magic existed. The day that Harry had given Hermione the book about his life they still had their childish belief in the truth of magic and fairies and father christmas. So they simply accepted that magic was real and that they were magical people, they accepted it and began to practice it. Sorcha sitting in her rocking chair kept an eye on her replacement as Hermione grew in both magic and intelligence, and she was happy with what she saw, she knew that Hermione would one day make her name in the history of wizarding kind.


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse. Oh if only I owned the rights to Harry Potter, I would declare the last two books a disastrous mistake and rewrite them both.

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The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

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Part Twelve

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Hermione wondered if they would be able to enjoy the holiday as she walked toward the ladies rest room, the galleon she held tightly in her hand Sirius had given to her when he had met them as they got off the Hogwarts express felt warm. During his enthusiastic welcome to his godson and his godsons wife Sirius had given a coin to both Harry and herself with whispered instructions to go into the nearest restroom where they were to clasp the coin in their fist then say the words snap dragon, she had of course wanted to know why and Sirius told her that her parents were worried that if they had come to pick them up Dumbledore would be able to follow them home.

Harry nodded to Hermione as he walked into the gents, as soon as he entered the door he glanced behind him, there trying hard to mingle in with the crowd yet obviously following him he saw the greasy head of ex professor Snape, Harry chuckled as he clutched the coin in his fist and said quietly "Snap dragon".

Sirius paced up and down while he waited for a few minutes outside the gents, he repeatedly looked at the door way, and then acting as if he was getting impatient, after a rather exaggerated sigh he made his way into the restroom, seeing no trace of his godson he looked at the door and smiled just before he disapparated.

Hermione and Harry arrived in the Granger living room just a few seconds apart. Harry chuckled as he told Hermione about Snape and the surprise he was in for when he discovered they had left by portkey.

Mr and Mrs Granger were waiting for their arrival and as soon as the two young ones had had time to realise where they were, they were both engulfed in tight hugs.

"Hermione, oh it's so good to have you home," Helen said as she crushed her daughter in a tight hug before turning to Harry and welcoming him home with the same enthusiasm. Richard after hugging Harry swept Hermione off her feet and swung her around before hugging her tight and kissing her on top of her head.

Sirius arrived just as Helen Granger was pouring out the tea, "Ah immaculate timing as usual," he said as he rubbed his hands together.

There was a grin on Sirius's face that Richard noticed, "So what has you so cheerful," he asked as he passed a cup of tea over.

Sirius accepted the offered cup before he answered "Well Sorcha was right about Dumbledore trying to follow our two young Potters, he even had Snape following Harry while he followed Hermione, I would love to see their faces when they realise they were port keyed out of there."

Hermione was in her bedroom still unpacking her stuff when a knock on her door interrupted her, she opened the door to find Aunty Minnie standing there, Hermione invited the headmistress into her room and sat down on the bed expectantly.

"I won't beat about the bush dear, I want you and Harry to attend school at weekends during the holidays and you must refrain from using magic during the week. Arthur Weasley has sent us word that Dumbledore and Fudge are both co-operating in trying to trace you and Harry. We positively dare not rely on the wands being unregistered any more, there are ways available to the ministry to track unauthorised magic from anyone under age or with an unregistered wand," Minerva told a rather disappointed Hermione.

"But aunty Minnie, Harry really needs a break. I mean he's only working so hard because of me, and if things were different he would have things like quidditch to help him get through everything. Do you know he would be the best seeker Hogwarts ever saw if he wasn't trying to keep up with me and my desire to learn everything I can," Hermione complained.

"I never knew Harry could play Quidditch," Minnie said a little surprised.

"Well Harry has never played as far as I know, but I do know he has the natural instincts a great seeker needs, as for how I know you will just have to take my word for it. Harry Potter and the Gryffindor team would be unbeatable if he were on the team," Hermione said with conviction and not just a little pride in her husband.

"Hmmm, well maybe we could arrange something for him to do during his training time over these holidays," Minerva said thoughtfully.

The following five days seemed to rush by as both Hermione and Harry played around and generally acted like two preteens, they spent time playing in the park with the friends they had made at their primary school as well as spending a day fishing with Richard. Saturday arrived before they expected it and with it came Aunty Minnie with a port key to take them to Hogwarts. She was waiting for them when they returned from their early morning run, even though it was the holiday both Hermione and Harry wanted to continue their physical training, so they started each day at six in the morning with a run to the local park, where they did a few laps of the park before spending some time on the climbing frame to do some pull ups and other exercises before they trotted back to the house.

Hermione and Harry, arrived at Hogwarts with Aunty Minnie and were welcomed by professor Flitwick who was accompanied by an ancient looking wizard, "This," the little professor said with something like reverence "is Mr Fergal McGonagall, youngest son of Sorcha."

Professor Flitwick bowed a little to the old man as he introduced him to the two young Potters "This sir is Mrs Hermione Jane Potter, and her husband Harry James Potter."

The old man smiled at the two young ones as he held out his hand to them, Harry ever protective of Hermione stood in front of her as he took the old mans hand. It was then that Harry realised as he shook hands that there was something different about the man in front of him, he could actually feel the friendliness that seemed to radiate all around them. Stepping aside so that Hermione could shake the mans' hand Harry looked at Aunty Minnie and he could see the family likeness.

Minerva picked up two parcels and handed one to each of the children, "We will be spending the weekends at Uncle Fergal's summer home so you will need to wear these clothes. So off you go to your quarters and change, we will meet in one hour in my office."

Minerva supplied yet another port key that took them all on the longest port key journey that either Hermione or Harry had ever made. They finally landed along side a medium sized swimming pool, out side what looked to both the Potters like a large Romanesque villa or mansion. Fergal McGonagall led them inside the house and into a large empty room.

"While you are here you will be learning all that I can teach you about wandless magic, you will be helped in this by two wizards that I believe you both know," Fergal told them as he waved his hand and two comfy looking armchairs appeared, "you may sit while we wait for their arrival, I will join you shortly."

Fergal nodded to Minerva then left the room, Minerva coughed a little "Well time for me to return to Hogwarts, just in case anyone should call looking for me. I will return tomorrow evening to collect you and take you home. I hope you will both work hard with Uncle Fergal, wandless magic can be a great advantage," having finished talking Minerva gave them both a hug before she disapparated.

"So do you have any idea where we are?" Harry asked when they were alone.

"I'm not sure, it's warm enough to be either Spain or Portugal, maybe even North Africa," Hermione replied as she looked out of the huge windows that filled an entire wall.

Just five minutes later they were joined by Sirius and Remus, both of who did not look to enthusiastic to be awake so early in the morning.

Fergal returned a few minutes later and immediately began to tell them that they were in his home in southern Spain where there was no law about underage magic, he also told them about wandless magic; he informed them that it was not quite as hard to do as they had been led to believe and he was going to teach them how it was done.

"There are several countries where the magical folk would not even know what a wand was, they have never been subjected to the draw backs of living in what is termed a modern civilisation, in fact they see us as the uneducated and weak species that needs help to perform our spells."

An hour later Remus Lupin was the first of them to manage to get his feather to float above his head, Fergal kept repeating that they needed to concentrate on their fingers the same way that they did with a wand, Hermione finally admitted she was not to sure what he meant because she could not remember having to concentrate on her wand.

"When you cast a spell with your wand, you focus on getting the correct wand movement, use that same focus to direct your hand, if necessary focus on hand movements to create the spell," Fergal told them.

With the encouragement they had by having two adults learning the same things they were, Harry, and Hermione began to cast working spells. By the evening all four of them had begun to perform the simple first year spells taught at Hogwarts. Fergal was quite happy with their progress even though he had had absolutely no doubts about Hermione's ability to perform wandless and even wordless spells, he was pleased at how hard Harry worked to keep up with the others, and Harry had the firm belief in his ability to perform magic that was usually only found in the old adults. It was as he thought about this that Fergal remembered that Hermione had started teaching Harry and herself while they were still young enough to retain their childhood belief in fairy tales and all things magical.

Weekend after weekend Hermione, and Harry, port keyed to Hogwarts then on to Fergal's mansion, they both enjoyed learning to do wandless magic with Sirius and Remus, the four of them became very close as they spent every Saturday and Sunday together, even after their lessons were finished for the day they spent the Saturday evenings playing around, sometimes even playing childish pranks on each other.

Remus turned out to be a lot more fun than the two young ones had expected, he was often the one to play pranks on all three of them. Sirius had begun to recruit Hermione and Harry in repaying Remus for his pranks by thinking up and planning wilder and wilder things for them to do. Fergal sat and watched happily as the two children were being taught about tactics and planning without even realising they were having lessons.

The weeks of the holiday were almost over when Fergal informed his niece Minerva that there was nothing more he could teach to the young Potters, they were both able to perform any spell he asked them. Hermione did most of her magic soundlessly and Harry was not far behind her. Fergal did remind them several times that when back at school they would have to pretend even more than they had had to do before.

Things at Fergal's mansion were a little different when Hermione and Harry arrived for their last weekend. There were several witches and wizards there that they did not know. Minerva met them with a broom in her hands when they arrived. She gestured for them all to follow her and led them out to a Quidditch pitch where the Gryffindor Quidditch team were waiting.

Minerva gave Harry a broom telling him that he was to play seeker for the Gryffindor team. He would have thirty minutes to practice on the broom before the game began. Harry had watched some of the Quidditch matches at school and knew exactly what the seeker had to do; sitting astride his broom he kicked off on his practice.

Harry was pleased to find on his first flying lesson with professor Hooch, that flying came to him almost as though he had been born on a broom. So after flying as he had been instructed during his first few weeks at Hogwarts he decided to try his own way to see if he could get more comfortable. After the first few cautious minutes of flying around the pitch he began to try out some of the more dangerous moves he had seen. It was not long after that he was diving and swooping around with out any fear at all, it all seemed to be second nature to him.

Harry heard a whistle as he dived toward the ground from two hundred feet above the pitch, he did not pull out of the dive until he was so close to the ground that his feet dragged through the very short grass as he levelled out and flew toward Minerva.

Harry was joined on the pitch by the Gryffindor team led on by Oliver Wood, as Oliver asked Harry about how long he had been practising and spluttering when told that it was the first time Harry had been on a pitch, they were joined by all the other witches and wizards they had seen on their arrival.

"So Gryffindor's, today you will be playing a friendly game with the Irish internationals. I know you will all do the house of Gryffindor proud," Minerva told the team as they gathered around Wood.

To say that the Gryffindor team was surprised would have been an understatement, they the Gryffindor team had not won a game for quite some time and now their headmistress was expecting them to play against the Irish national team. Still they were Gryffindor's and without a single complaint they all mounted their brooms and on Minerva's whistle they all took up their positions.

The game had been going fairly well for the Gryffindor team, after almost an hour the score was 120 to the Irish team and 60 to the Gryffindor's, suddenly it seemed everyone stopped to watch horrified as Harry seemed to have fallen from his broom and plummeted toward the ground from 250 feet high. Everyone there stared at the falling boy, it seemed as though they were all suddenly paralysed as he sped earthward dragging his broom with him, at around 40 feet from the ground Harry dragged the broom he still held tightly too so that he could mount it again, having swung his leg over the broom he then reached out and with the reactions of an expert seeker he snatched the snitch in his right hand, he managed to level out from his free fall just a few feet above the ground as he waved the snitch madly in the air.

The Irish seeker was the first to reach Harry and as he drew level with Harry he gave a wink then took hold of Harry's arm and hoisted it up, rather like a referee at a boxing match holds up the winners arm.

Everyone but Hermione was congratulating Harry for his amazing move; no one had seen anything like it before. Hermione though was furious with him and was threatening what she would do to him if he ever scared her so much ever again. It took her nearly half an hour to stop shaking. She did eventually congratulate him on winning but as she kissed him properly with all the passion she could muster for the very first time she also warned him one more time he was not to give her such a fright again. Harry didn't answer her as he stood there with a goofy look on his face and his eyes slightly glazed over, while he licked his lips several times. Having decided he really liked it when Hermione kissed him like that instead of kissing his cheek or just giving him a quick peck on his lips he kissed her back, quite a few times and thought that maybe he had found himself a new hobby to practice.

Oliver Wood was begging Minerva to put Harry on the team full time at school. Harry told them he wasn't sure he would have the time but if he did he would enjoy playing again. The Irish seeker wanted to know what Harry called the move he had made to catch the snitch.

Hermione was the one who answered "The fools fall."

The Irish seeker swore he would use the move himself if he ever got the chance, the Gryffindor team were so happy with winning that Minerva and Fergal were talked into throwing a party for them all. Both teams had a great time and though they had been beaten by a school team, the Irish team still congratulated the Gryffindors whole heartedly.

~*~*~*~

It was the first Saturday that they had spent at home since the summer break had begun. Hermione sat on her bed and looked at the open book on her lap. She read again the words she had only skimmed over in her previous browsing, now it seemed she and Harry had some real serious problems to solve and she could think of no way to solve them.

She read again the words of Harry James Potter,

'…_And I believe it was sometime during our shopping trip to Diagon Alley that Lucius Malfoy slipped the diary into Ginny Weasley's cauldron, though I never saw him actually do it. He did not deny it when I later faced him with it just prior to setting my good friend Dobby free. It was on that same visit to Diagon Alley that I first met one of the worst people I ever knew, his name was Lockhart and what he did was to search out people who had done something heroic, talk to them to find out how they did what ever it was they did. He then obliviated them removing their memory of what they had done. He would then write a book claiming the heroic deed for him self, he was hired by Dumbledore as defence teacher and as it turned out he was the worlds worst wizard, the only spell he could actually do was the obliviate. The entire year that he was defence professor was wasted.'_

Harry came into the room having been for a shower and he looked at her quizzically wondering why she was so deep in thought she had not heard or seen him yet. Wondering what part of the book had Hermione so deep in thought Harry stood behind her and looked over her shoulder, she was beginning the second chapter once again.

"I think we might need some help from Sirius and Remus, we have just a week to figure out how to save a life, get two criminals locked up, stop a huge snake being set loose in Hogwarts, and free an house elf named Dobby," Hermione said as she showed Harry the parts of the second chapter she was talking about.

Harry went to his own room and sent Hedwig out with notes for Sirius, Remus, and Aunty Minnie; he then joined Hermione in her bedroom as they waited for the answers to be returned.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

Part thirteen

Hermione read the book as she patiently snuggled with Harry as they awaited the return of Hedwig; they were both surprised when Sirius and Remus knocked on the front door before the owl had returned. When Hermione thought about it she realised that it would take quite a while for the owl to reach Hogwarts, which was somewhere in northern Scotland. That would give both Sirius and Remus plenty of time to apparate to their house well before Hedwig had even delivered her note to Auntie Minnie.

Sirius and Remus were shown up to Hermione's room by Mrs Granger who wanted to know what was going on, and why Harry had sent for his god father and his friend. On Sirius's suggestion they decided to ask Helen about a cup of tea while they waited for Minerva, then they made their way down the stairs again.

As the three adults took up seats around the kitchen table Hermione and Harry walked down the stairs still unsure about how to convince the adults that what they were about to tell them was true without having to reveal anything about the book.

They need not have worried because Helen convinced the two wizards to accept their word as the truth, she did after all know both children had known things before that no one else knew about, and each time they had been proved correct.

Remus paced the kitchen as he thought about the problems that Hermione had given them to solve, they were still trying to think of something when they were joined by Auntie Minnie. Once she had been told about the problems she too set to thinking of a way they might be able to do all that Hermione mentioned. An hour after the arrival of auntie Minnie Harry went back upstairs to finish dressing, while in his room Harry read a little more of chapter two of the book. When he walked into the kitchen half an hour later he had an idea running around in his mind, having thought about it as he drank a cup of tea he came to the decision that his idea may well work.

Having told the others about his idea and after being told several times by the adults that the idea was crazy enough to work, and it was the only one they had, plans were made for them all to meet in Diagon Alley on the same day as the Weasleys did their shopping. The same day that Gilderoy Lockhart had his book signing arranged in Flourish and Blotts book shop.

The Granger family followed the Weasleys into Flourish and Blotts book shop, and as expected Harry was almost immediately pointed out by Gilderoy Lockhart. The smiling fraud dragged Harry by his cloak to the front of the crowd and clung to his shoulder as he forced Harry to stand next to him to have his photograph taken.

Richard Granger then did something that the smarmy writer did not expect; he shouted that if Lockhart did not let his nephew go instantly he would challenge him to a duel. Lockhart looked at the Muggle then down at the small boy he was holding onto and began to laugh; he pulled Harry even closer to him as the photographer took yet another photo.

Harry struggled free from the tight grip Lockhart had on him and then in front of the huge crowd of women who were there just to see the hero of so many books, Richard called out his challenge to the inept wizard.

"For man handling my Nephew against his will, I am challenging you to a wizard duel," Richard said loud enough for everyone to hear.

Lockhart began to bluster and mumbled about not being crazy, he was not going to duel a Muggle and get into trouble with the Ministry. Richard looked at the fumbling fraud and smiled it seemed everything was going just the way Harry said it would.

Turning to the crowd Richard began to speak "You know I think Lockhart is a total fraud, I don't think he did any of the things he wrote about, and as I am a Muggle I am going to elect my twelve year old daughter to be my champion in the duel. You sir, the gentleman with the long blond hair, you look like a respectable wizard. I wonder would you be the referee for us?"

Lucius Malfoy looked around at the people who all looked to him expectantly, "Yes, as you seem to have chosen me I will," he answered politely, the thought of seeing a young mudblood girl suffer making him feel good.

Gilderoy Lockhart looked at Hermione and smiled, there was no way he could see to get out of the situation, if he refused the challenge he would be proved a coward and a fraud, but as the fool of a Muggle had picked a twelve year old girl to be his champion Lockhart was sure he could quite easily win a duel against her so he accepted the challenge.

Out side in the street the people formed a large circle around the Grangers and Lockhart, Gilderoy insisted on only using the disarming and petrifying spells so that he would not harm the child, Richard Granger agreed with him and stepped back to allow Malfoy to take charge.

Sirius and Remus who were in the crowd, edged their way around until they were directly behind Malfoy. As the duel began Hermione was chuckling at the inept Lockhart who failed to cast any spells that worked. Slowly she circled around and kept up a series of small insults and she teased the writer, she had just finished saying that she should have let her dad fight the duel even as a Muggle he had just as much magical ability as Lockhart.

While the crowd eagerly watched the young girl teasing the supposed hero of so many books, Hermione cast a petrifying charm toward Lockhart, it missed Lockhart but it did hit her target. Both Sirius and Remus moved in as close as they could get to the petrified Malfoy. Sirius nodded to Hermione as her spell hit the blond haired wizard and petrified him. With Sirius covering him Remus standing right behind Malfoy then carefully searched Malfoys pockets, having found the book and placed it in his own pocket he nodded at Hermione, and then with Sirius he backed away to the rear of the crowd.

Hermione pointed her wand at Malfoy and cast the charm to free him, she apologised to him for her error before she cast the disarming spell at Lockhart, catching the man's wand as it sailed toward her, leaving the fraud to be the laughing stock of the wizarding world.

As they climbed aboard the Knight bus for the journey home Hermione sighed, they had just been freed by the ministry. It having been decided that a Muggle, and a twelve year old girl would not know the law on duelling.

Malfoy and Lockhart however had been arrested for taking part in an illegal wizard duel, Lockhart had been disgraced and under questioning at the ministry he had admitted to all his crimes.

The Grangers and their two adult wizard friends sat on the bus discussing how well their plan had worked, they had caused the two criminals to be arrested, Lockhart was totally disgraced, witches who had witnessed the duel told others all about it, and within a few hours there were quite a few fires as Lockhart's books were burnt by angry people.

Malfoy would be kept locked up until his wife had paid the fine, Remus had the book that would have caused Ginny Weasley to be possessed by Voldemort, and they had prevented the release of the Slytherin monster.

Once back at home Hermione and Harry watched over by Sirius and Remus took the black diary of Tom Riddle out in to the back garden, after placing a silencing charm around them Hermione opened the book and stepped back as Harry poured some of the Potter blood potion they had made on to the book. The potion Harry poured on the book began to spread and within seconds it began to bubble and smoke, the loud screaming wail that came from the book as the piece of Voldemort's soul it contained was destroyed made them both shiver.

Once again Hermione sighed; they had now completed all they had set out to do, all that is except set the house elf free, that they could not do until they were back at Hogwarts.

The following Monday they boarded the Hogwarts express and were on their way back to school, Hermione having finished rereading the second chapter of the book had decided that they should try to become friends with Ginny Weasley, according to the book she had just spent a very lonely year at home and this year her brothers would almost totally ignore her, Ron Weasley the hated Slytherin would even go as far as telling his sister to go away when ever she tried to talk to him.

So as the two Potters made their way through the train they looked for the red headed first year girl. Hermione spotted her as they neared the middle of the train, she was sitting alone in a carriage looking rather excited and yet she also had a rather sad look about her eyes. Harry supposed that is what would happen to a young girl as she left home for the first time heading for a strange place all alone.

Hermione led the way into the carriage and asked the red head if they could join her, by the time they had left the platform Hermione had introduced Harry and herself to Ginny Weasley and the two girls were chatting away quite happily. Harry resting his head against the carriage window fell asleep as the train rolled along, the steady swaying and sounds of the train lulling him into sleep.

Harry woke an hour after falling asleep when he heard the voice of Draco Malfoy. Hermione looked up as the blond haired Slytherin and his two friends opened the door to the carriage.

"Ah what do we have here, Potter and his mudblood," Malfoy drawled as he tried to step into their compartment, "the fool mudblood who got my father arrested."

Harry opened one eye and looked at the blond who according to the book was a real pain in Harry's behind; one who it seemed never learnt a lesson.

Watching Hermione Harry mumbled just loud enough for them all to hear "Are you going to sort the fool out dear or do you want me to do it?"

Hermione smiled at him "Its okay Harry you just go back to sleep and I'll take care of the insects that just crawled in."

Harry nodded and closed his eyes again, listening as his wife turned to talk to Malfoy.

"Now Draco isn't it, yes well now listen and listen carefully because I will only tell you once, if you want to be able to walk from this train and not have those two dead beats carry you all the way up to the school go back to your own compartment and sit down like a good little boy," she said politely.

"Are you threatening me?" Malfoy snarled at Hermione.

"As a matter of fact Draco that is exactly what I am doing, how clever of you to work it out," Hermione said smiling at the blond "so now you have worked it out, go away there's a good little boy."

Ginny sat staring wide eyed at Hermione; she could not believe what she had heard, Harry opened his eyes and looked at Hermione.

"How on earth is a chap supposed to sleep with all his whining going on, would you mind just getting on with it my love," Harry said a huge grin on his face.

Malfoy pulled out his wand as Harry spoke and pointed it at Hermione, "Oh look love he wants to show you his wand," Harry chuckled.

Before Malfoy knew what had happened his wand was in Hermione's hand and she was looking at it with a look of disgust on her face.

"Do you suppose it's a real one Harry, I mean we have seen him trying to use it in class and I'm sure I can remember Draco being unable to do anything with it," Hermione said as she passed him Malfoys' wand.

"Shall I pull it apart to see how it is made?" Harry asked looking at Ginny, "no I suppose not, I might get into trouble with the headmistress," he said as he handed it back to Hermione.

Hermione handed the wand back to Malfoy "You should be careful where you point this you know, you might get hurt, and it would be decidedly uncomfortable trying to sit with this placed where the sun never shines."

A rather furious Malfoy once again pointed his wand at Hermione "Why you mudblood trash…" he began.

Malfoy never finished his sentence as he suddenly found him self unable to talk, Hermione gave her own wand a flick at Malfoy and the Slytherin bully found himself down on his knees, try as he might he could not get back up, his legs seemed to be locked together. Another quick wave with her wand, and Malfoys' wand moved into his pocket and his hands locked together so that he looked as though he were kneeling and praying to Hermione.

Hermione looked at Malfoys companions "If you don't want the same treatment you had better pick this piece of rubbish up off the floor and take it back to your own compartment."

She did not have to repeat her self as the two stupid looking Slytherins' grabbed Malfoy and dragged him away, "Oh Malfoy if you ever insult Hermione again you might find your self unable to speak permanently," Harry said as Draco was dragged away.

Ginny closed the door as the Slytherins' left before she looked at Hermione in awe, "Wow, you are brilliant Hermione," she exclaimed as she sat back down.

At the sorting Ginny was sorted into Gryffindor and as the sorting hat was taken from her head she walked over to the Gryffindor table and joined Harry and Hermione, she was quickly congratulated and welcomed into the house of Gryffindor by her brothers who then turned back to talk to their friends, and just as described in the book they then ignored their little sister.

Ginny was pleased that she had befriended Hermione and Harry; she knew that the two Potters would always welcome her if she wanted to sit with them and talk or to ask them for help with her school work. All the rubbish about her being married to 'The Harry Potter' that her mother had always told her, she suddenly saw as complete rubbish. She could tell that Harry and Hermione were going to be together for the rest of their lives.

Hermione found the Weasley boys' treatment of their little sister cruel and disgraceful and she was not shy about letting them know it, even Ron who sat looking on from his table. After the feast the three new friends made their way up to the tower together, Hermione showed Ginny up to her dormitory and helped the younger girl unpack. As Ginny climbed into bed that night she knew for sure that her mums silly dream of her daughter one day getting married to Harry Potter was just that, a silly dream. Because there was no doubt in her mind at all, Harry Potter belonged to Hermione Potter.

Harry met up with Neville and asked how his holiday had been and did he have any luck getting a new wand. Neville pulled his new wand out and showed it proudly to Harry.

"Old Mr Ollivander said my magic should be a lot easier to control now, just like you said," Neville told him as Harry examined the new wand.

At the beginning of the term both Harry and Hermione found the second year classes hard work, they had to continually remind each other not to make things look too easy, the two Potters complained about it to Auntie Minnie who suggested that they might find things easier if they relaxed and looked at the class lessons as revision and a break from their real lessons.

The Monday of the second week of the term they received a note telling them they were to visit the headmistresses' office. Hermione and Harry walked hand in hand up to the office; they had been waiting for this summons by the headmistress. Harry knocked on the huge oak door and they entered together when it opened.

Mr Lucius Malfoy was standing in front of the heads desk, a small odd looking little creature stood at the back of the room looking extremely nervous.

Hermione was the first to speak, "You sent for us professor?"

"Yes, Harry is this the man you saw in Diagon Alley?" she asked quietly.

"Yes professor this is the man," Harry said as he pulled the potion stained book from a pocket "excuse me sir, when we were in Diagon Alley the other day as we left Flourish and Blotts I saw you drop this book, I asked the professor if she could help me to get it back to you."

Malfoy gave a huge sigh and had a look of tremendous relief on his face as he took the book from Harry; he regretted it almost instantly as he felt the sticky potion all over it.

"Sorry sir I spilled some potion on it," Harry said at the evil look he got from Malfoy.

Malfoy called over to the elf cowering in a corner "Dobby, here take this filthy thing." He handed the book to Dobby and then with a nod to Minerva he walked to the door of the room.

Hermione whispered to Dobby to open the book. The little elf did as she told him and he found a sock inside, the look of joy on the elf's face when he realised that Malfoy had given him clothes made Harry smile.

Malfoy roared with rage and went crazy at Harry when he realised he had been tricked by a young boy, he began to threaten Harry but Minerva ordered him to leave the office and the school. Dobby turned on Malfoy and threatened that he would not let him harm Harry Potter.

Half an hour later a very happy Hermione and Harry, hired Dobby to be their house elf. Hermione gave Dobby the address to their house and a short letter to give to her mother, Dobby left them after thanking them profusely once more for setting him free, and then with a pop he vanished.

Hermione and Harry said thank you to Auntie Minnie for helping them before making their way back to the Gryffindor tower and a well deserved rest.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

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The life of Harry Potter, and my part in it.  
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Part fourteen

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Friday of their first week of the new term Harry, and Hermione, entered their first defence against the dark arts class of the term. They were both wondering what the new professor would be like because apparently no one had yet seen the mysterious teacher, he had not been to the great hall for meals, and he had not yet taught a class.

Taking their seats at the front of the class Harry was asking Neville if he had any idea who the new teacher might be when he heard a voice that made him smile even though the voice was telling him to be quiet in class, he then remembered Aunty Minnie offering Sirius a job.

"No talking in my class unless it is related to the lesson, that includes you Mr Potter," boomed Sirius as he entered the room making his way to the front of the class.

Sirius took a roll call of his class and then sitting back on his chair he took out a parchment and began to read it, just a few minutes later Sirius looked at the class and with a smile he told them all to take out their wands.

The class spent the next two hours learning and then practising a shield charm and the wandless summoning charm, when asked by Neville why they would need to learn about the summoning charm in a defence class, Sirius told him to drop his wand, "Now Mr Longbottom," Sirius said as Neville's wand rolled away "if you had just been disarmed in some way what would you do."

Without thinking Neville summoned his wand to him, his face burst into a huge smile as he caught the wand flying toward him, "My uncle said I was hopeless," he said to Hermione as he flopped back into his seat.

"Now Mr Longbottom, tell me why do we need to learn the summoning charm?" Sirius asked quietly.

"I'm sorry I asked Sir, it was a stupid question and I should never have asked," Neville said turning crimson red.

"That Mr Longbottom is definitely the wrong answer, asking the question was the right thing to do. If you ever have any questions about what we are doing in my class then I want to hear them. You will never learn properly if you go through your lessons not understanding something. So in future I don't want any of you to be worried about asking a question, if you don't understand ask, if you are having problems with something then ask for help, have you all got that," Sirius said seriously

There was a chorus of yes professor Black from the class before they all went back to practising the spells.

The first few days had passed by uneventfully for both Harry and Hermione, apart from Oliver Wood plaguing them and trying his best to talk Harry into joining the Quidditch team, Harry though he had liked the game didn't think he would have enough time, he had to do his normal lessons along with his homework and then in the evenings and at weekend he and Hermione had what they called their 'real lessons'.

After Wood's almost relentless badgering made worse with encouragement from the rest of the Quidditch team plus Neville, Seamus, and Ginny, Harry had finally had enough by Saturday as he tried to eat lunch with the whole Quidditch team talking to him; he was just about to yell at them all to leave him alone when Hermione whispered a word in his ear.

"Ginny," was all she said and then she grinned at him.

For a few seconds Harry wasn't sure what Ginny had to do with it and then he remembered what it said about her in the book, he smiled at Hermione and gave her hand a squeeze.

"Look Oliver, if you want the best seeker for the team then you had best talk to Ginny Weasley, she's far more suitable for the team than me," Harry said looking at their new red haired friend.

The two Weasley twins began to laugh "Ginny as seeker, now that is funny," Fred quipped.

"Did you ever give her a chance to play?" Hermione asked as she winked at Ginny.

"Well no of course not, she's a girl, she's our little sister," George said, he then found him self in trouble with the teams three chasers, who were all girls.

Ginny was standing staring at Harry with her mouth open and wondering how the heck he knew she could use a broom, even her family didn't know that. She only practised at night when everyone else had gone to bed and she was absolutely sure she had kept it a secret from everyone.

Harry grinned at Ginny and then Hermione before turning to the twins "I'll bet you five Galleons each that Ginny is good enough for the team."

Before the twins could argue Harry got up and rushed from the great hall, calling over his shoulder "I'll be back in five minutes," as the entire team just stood and watched him go.

True to his word Harry returned five minutes later with his broom slung over his shoulder, when he reached them he gave his broom to Ginny "You'll need to use a good broom, you can use mine as much as you want," he told her as she stared at the Nimbus 2000 she had been handed.

"Come on then Ginny time to show these boy's just how good you are," Hermione said as she stood and took Harry's hand in hers.

The entire Quidditch team along with half of Gryffindor followed Hermione, Harry and Ginny out of the great hall and down to the Quidditch pitch, as soon as they got there Oliver wood took charge, he let his own little snitch go and without a word Ginny mounted the broom and soared off in pursuit.

Hermione and Harry quietly left the Quidditch team as they cheered enthusiastically for Ginny as she chased the tiny little golden ball, ten minutes later the Potters were entering the Defence classroom where both Sirius and Remus were waiting for them.

The next three hours Hermione and Harry practised hard at creating a patronus while facing a Bogart that looked and felt just like a real Dementor. It took them almost the entire three hours and several bars of chocolate to finally be able to get the charm right, it was Harry who managed to create his patronus first. Hermione was just a few seconds behind him and as their two patronus chased the Bogart back into the cupboard it had come from, both Sirius and Remus congratulated them on their success.

Hermione was blushing just a little when Harry said he would never have been able to do the charm if Hermione had not been his wife, he had used the memory of when they had found out they were not betrothed but were instead married, helped by the memory of the new way of kissing they had found at the Quidditch game.

As they walked hand in hand back to Gryffindor tower Hermione asked Harry if he really meant what he had said about being married to her making him happy enough to create a patronus, Harry chuckled for a few seconds before he answered her question,

"Of course I meant it, after all it saved me having to figure out how to propose to you some day," he said but then he stopped chuckling and his face took on a serious look "truth is, being married to you is the best thing that has or could ever happen to me. I mean the other Harry knew we belong together, and I reckon he was right about that just as he has been right about everything else up to now."

Hermione pulled him into a tight hug, then while still keeping an arm around each other they finished their walk to the tower.

"Hermione," Harry said as they lay in bed.

"Hmm, what is it love?" she mumbled, she was almost asleep when he had spoken.

"You know when I played that Quidditch game and you kissed me, er… I was… well I thought… I mean… would you kiss me goodnight like that?" Harry said blushing like a Weasley.

Hermione turned over so that she was facing him and without saying anything she lifted her head a little and kissed him, it was quite a long kiss and Harry suddenly felt truly married, "Would you do that every night?" he said as he let out a deep breath and then sighed.

Hermione smiled at him before snuggling up close to him and resting her head on his chest "Night Harry," she murmured as her eyes closed.

Harry had a huge grin on his face as he wrapped his arms around her "Night sweet heart."

Early on Sunday morning Hermione and Harry were in the common room talking to a really happy Oliver wood. Oliver had thanked Harry several times for his help in finding one of the best seekers he had ever seen, he told them how Ginny, even after having to wait for twenty minutes after the snitch was released before she was allowed to go seeking, had found and caught the snitch in record time. She was the youngest Seeker in a century, and the first, first year female to make a house team since the game first started.

Hermione kept up a pretence of being interested in the game when all she wanted to really do was to slip away with Harry to Potters Bottom so that they could spend some time studying the book before their lessons for the day began. Harry eventually managed to get rid of Oliver when he insisted he had to take Hermione down to breakfast, Hermione looked at her watch and nodded vigorously in agreement,

"Yes breakfast Harry, it's nearly seven o clock," she said taking his hand in hers.

As the two Potters made their way out of the castle with a large pile of toast and two tumblers of pumpkin juice heading for Potters Bottom, what they did not know was they were being followed.

Ginny Weasley looked out on to the lawns leading down to the lake, she was out side hiding. She had needed to escape Oliver Wood before he drove her crazy. Seeing the two Potters in the distance she used the excuse of needing to thank Hermione and Harry as a reason to rush out of her hiding place near the entrance hall and across the lawn. Then she thought she saw some old man following them but from where she was she wasn't sure. She was half way across the lawn and still running to catch up with her new friends when she saw the bearded old man hiding behind some bushes as he watched the young couple heading for the lake.

Ginny carried on running, passing the bushes where the old man was hiding, she had to force herself to ignore the bushes and not look in that direction. She had no idea who the old man was but she did not want him to know she had seen him; it did not take her long to catch up with Hermione and Harry.

"Hermione! Wait for me," Ginny called as she got closer to her friends.

Hermione and Harry both turned to look, surprised by Ginny's shout. Moments later Ginny was fairly loudly thanking them for helping her to get on the team; she gave Harry a quick hug and then turned to Hermione, as she gave Hermione a hug she whispered that they were being followed by an old man. Hermione gave a little nod to let Ginny know she had heard her and then began to walk again, whispering to Harry what Ginny had told her, together the three of them changed direction slightly and headed toward a small clump of trees and bushes down by the lake.

~*~*~*~*~

Albus Dumbledore couldn't quite believe his luck, he had crept into the Hogwarts grounds through one of the secret passages that only he and a very few others knew about, he was determined to get up to the Gryffindor tower and have another talk with Harry Potter, he had convinced himself he needed the boy under his influence and he was not going to be put off by the security measures of a woman who had usurped his position as head of the school.

He rubbed his hands with joy as Harry Potter and that darn girl left the main exit just fifty yards away from him, quickly deciding that he could follow them and eventually get Harry alone, there he could once again use Legilimency on the boy and bring him into line.

Following them quietly and carefully and then hiding and praising himself that he had been just quick enough to duck out of sight as a young red haired girl ran after Harry and his darn girl, he listened as she thanked them for helping her get on the Quidditch team, then staying at a distance he once more followed them as they walked toward the lake.

This is just too easy Albus Dumbledore thought grinning like a cheshire cat, "They have no idea," he whispered to him self with a small chuckle as the three young ones walked behind a clump of trees.

A few moments later he heard as one of the girls counted in fives up to one hundred, "Ah they are playing hide and go seek, appropriate for a new seeker," he whispered to himself once again, then moved a little closer to where the voice was coming from. Finding a large tree to hide behind he sat down and waited for Harry to take his turn at counting. "He'll be mine before he reaches fifty," he told him self as he got comfortable, '_it may take a while'_ he thought casting a cushioning charm where he was sitting.

After quite a while he noticed everything had gone quiet in the area, he could not hear any children crashing about in the bushes in search of their friends, and he had not heard any raised voices since he had sat down, Albus felt a little uneasy but he decided he should wait for just a few more minutes hide and go seek often took some time after all.

~*~*~*~

Once out of sight Hermione began to count in fives while whispering in between numbers to Harry he should take Ginny and dissaparate to Potters palace, saying she would follow shortly. Hermione pulled her wand out to check they were outside the anti-apparation wards as Harry wrapped his arms around Ginny, with a nod from Hermione Harry silently vanished taking Ginny with him. Hermione then used the piece of magic that only she and Harry knew about and she became invisible once again.

Hermione had finished her count to one hundred while she checked the area for signs of Dumbledore, finding nothing she sat and waited for a few minutes, just as she had decided that the coast was clear she heard someone moan and the sound of someone falling over followed by a few choice cuss words, standing quickly to her feet she moved very quietly toward the sound she had heard, she could still hear some quiet grumbles.

Albus Dumbledore was on his hands and knees, brambles tangled in the bottom of his robes and his beard. Hermione thought it her lucky day as she rounded a tree and saw Dumbledore's butt sticking up in the air as he tried to free himself.

Several stinging hexes on the butt later and what Hermione thought was a performance by Dumbledore worthy of any dance stage she made her way back to the other side of the trees and then apparated to join Harry and Ginny in Potter Palace.

As soon as Hermione appeared she burst out laughing, tears rolled down her face as she tried to tell them about what she had just done to the former headmaster.

"And there it was, his butt sticking in the air. I just couldn't resist it. I hit him right on his left butt cheek with a stinging hex, and then when he leapt up and grabbed his butt only to fall over again I hit him again, only on the other side, I managed to get him at least six times before his robes ripped and a clump of his beard was left behind when he was free, I got out of there fairly quick then," she told them as they joined her in laughter.

As the laughter finally died Ginny was shown around, crossing the grass in the centre of the village Harry proudly announced she was now standing on the centre part of Potters Bottom. Ginny fell about laughing once more at some picture that had appeared in her mind.

Thirty minutes later the three children began to clean the upstairs of Potter palace as some thing to do. Hermione was a little annoyed at having Ginny with them when she so much wanted to study the book, still she smiled and put her desire to learn to one side as they all began to have fun with various house cleaning and repair charms that Ginny had been taught by her mother.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

Part 15.

Hermione had woken up really early and the grey dawn was just breaking, a tiny indication of sunshine some where beyond the horizon lighting the bottom of the sky with a deep red glow. She had woken and found her self cuddled up tightly against Harry. She snuggled into him comfortable and warm, wrapped as she was in his arms. She did not want to move, but she needed to get up. She tried to move away a little but found her self firmly held by her husband, his arm around her waist. Not wanting to wake him so early she lay watching him sleep and waiting for him to roll over, a move he made about ten minutes later.

As Harry released his hold on her to turn over and face the other way Hermione climbed from the bed. She wanted to find out why Dumbledore was still trying to get his hands on Harry, first though she needed the bathroom rather urgently and then a cup of tea. After a quick visit to the kitchens for a pot of tea and a few slices of toast, she returned to their room poured her self a drink and got out the book. Maybe there was something in the last few chapters, some idea of what they were up against and why, and so she began to read.

_The Life of Harry James Potter, Chapter thirty. _

_Finding out about Albus and Molly._

…_Having been headmaster of Hogwarts for quite some time I decided it was time to sort out Albus Dumbledore's belongings. It was a task that neither my self nor my predecessor professor McGonagall had wanted to do, but he had died quite a long time ago and so during the summer holidays my wife Ginny and I began the task._

_The first weekend of the holiday was almost over when I left the head masters private study to dispose of Albus's garish old clothes. I was only gone about two hours and returned to find Ginny crying, yet in a seething bad temper. She was not angry at me but I swear if her mother Molly had been there Ginny would have used one of the Unforgivables on her._

_Wondering why Ginny was in such a state I sat down to read one of Albus's journals that Ginny had almost forcefully thrust into my hands._

_At first I could not believe what I read. Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and I had been used as breeding stock as though we were nothing more than cattle. _

_We were used to improve the inbred pure blood family blood lines, as I read further I found that several half bloods and Muggle borns had been used in this fashion each year before us and several were to be used after us. Albus Dumbledore had been making quite a lot of money with his manipulation of people for his supposed greater good. Molly had not been able to carry on Dumbledore's little scheme after he died although she did try more than once._

_Ginny had been programmed by her mother to believe she was born to fall in love with Harry Potter the 'boy who lived' since the day she was born; thanks to Dumbledore by the time she reached the third year at Hogwarts all her free will in the matter had basically been removed. _

_I myself discovered that I had been left with my evil aunt and uncle even though Albus knew all about their cruelty. It was his way of keeping me isolated from the wizarding world until he had me under his influence at Hogwarts. Dumbledore had also known about my godfather Sirius being innocent of the crime he was accused of. _

_Those years before he died both he and Snape had used Legilimency on me to plant the thoughts in my head that I was totally in love with Ginny Weasley. Their plan it seems worked well._

_I think the biggest surprise was in learning that Molly had had the same thing done to my best friend Hermione; Molly wanted someone with high intelligence to marry her not to bright son Ron. It was also Molly's plan to get her hands on the Potter family fortune to re-establish the influence of the Weasleys in the wizarding world. Thankfully I had had a good advisor in charge of my vaults at Gringotts and he had prevented that happening._

_I was absolutely furious. I think that might have been when I began to work out my real feelings from the ones I had been brainwashed into thinking were real. It took quite a while before I worked out a way to recognise the implanted thoughts, and then one by one I removed them. It was about the time that I removed the last one that I realised my true feelings for Hermione, my life long best friend were still as passionate and deep as they had been when I was a rather hormonal and I might admit randy fifteen year old._

_I discovered much later from an ancient old aunt of Minerva's that Hermione, and I were supposed to be soul mates, we should have fallen in love and gone on to have a family together. I also discovered that the old witch had been waiting a good many years for Hermione Potter to take her place as keeper of witches magic or some such thing, something for reasons that were not explained to me she could not do once she had married the wrong man. The keeper of witches magic had to be someone who was soul bonded to her partner, which apparently in someway increases the life span of the bonded pair._

_That day when I removed the last of the lies from my mind I admitted that the love I had always had in my heart for Hermione and had kept secret from the entire world was not wrong, in fact it had been the only true love I had ever felt._

_Ginny and I had been married for thirty eight years when we found those journals. We were divorced just over a year after reading them. We became like strangers Ginny and I. I think it was knowing that the feelings we had once had for each other were not real, never had been, never would be. It was as though we had spent all those years living imprisoned in a lie._

_I had shown the Journals to both Ron and Hermione. For reasons not known to the rest of us Ron could find nothing wrong in what had been done to us._

_He would have quite happily carried on with his life as it was if Hermione had not reacted in the same way that Ginny and I had and got a divorce._

_Hermione and I were after she had removed all the false memories married five years later, but we had lost all those years we could have been together. We lost the chance to have children together; it was some thing we both deeply regretted. We were meant to be together, we both knew we were soul mates, once our hearts and minds were free of the lies and deceit Hermione and I were happily married for…'_

Hermione woke Harry when she slammed the book shut and began to call both Dumbledore and Mrs Weasley names. She was still calling Molly Weasley names that made Harry blush while she poured him a cup of tea.

"As soon as you are ready love you should read the book at that page I placed the marker in, while you get ready I am going to go and see Sorcha. I need some advice about what to do," Hermione said as she gave him his tea while he was still in bed.

Just a few minutes later Hermione had slipped her robes over her pyjamas' and left Harry reading while she made her way out of the castle and the grounds. Once out side the wards Hermione vanished with a silent pop.

Sorcha as usual seemed to know that Hermione was about to knock "Come in child, come in out of the cold," she called even as Hermione lifted her hand to knock.

'_How does she do that?_' Hermione wondered as she opened the door and walked in. Sorcha was sitting in her rocking chair looking older than Hermione remembered and she began to worry about the old lady.

"So child what brings you here at such an early hour?" the old lady asked as Hermione gave her a hug.

Hermione explained to Sorcha everything she had read that morning, and after giving vent to some anger about it all she asked for some advice on what she and Harry could do about the people who had already been affected by Dumbledore and Molly.

As Hermione told the story of what she had read that morning Sorcha began to get angry, the more she heard the angrier she got. She had known that Dumbledore and Molly wanted to marry both Hermione and Harry in to the Weasley family; the two of them had already failed in that. She had known because Hermione was to be her successor and had found her soul mate so early in her life, but Sorcha had had no idea that this was all part of something long term that had been planned by one of her witches as well as Dumbledore and they had practically forced some marriages on young couples, and that several of her charges around the world may have unknowingly been married to someone they should not have been with and never got together with their soul mates. Sorcha was far from happy to know that her main task of protecting the magic of soul mated witches may have been compromised.

Sorcha was furious with Dumbledore and Mary Elizabeth Prewett who was better known as Molly Weasley now. Sorcha was also mad at her self for not having been able to see what had happened, and for having done nothing to help her witches.

Sorcha having listened to Hermione told her she would do something to help try and put things right, and then sent her home before she sat up straightened her old back and began to wave a hand around, just a few seconds later she heard someone arrive outside.

"Come in Mary," Sorcha called out in a commanding voice.

Molly Weasley entered the small cottage warily with her wand held out in front of her, she had not been called by her given name since she had first entered into Hogwarts many years before and she wondered who it was that would use the name after such a long time.

Molly found herself being drawn to stand in front of the old witch in front of her, she had tried to resist but had known almost instantly she was wasting her time.

"So Mary Elizabeth Prewett would you like to tell me what you have been doing?" Sorcha asked a look of distaste on her face.

"I beg your pardon, and might I ask who are you?" Molly asked indignantly.

"Tell me Mary who has the power to end the Weasley family line, who is the one who could ensure all your grandchildren are girls," Sorcha asked still looking displeased.

Molly looked at the old woman as though she were crazy "Only the maker or his chosen one can do that!" she announced.

"So you really have forgotten me, have you forgotten the promises you made when you begged at night for your last child to be a girl, how you begged me to pass your plea on to the maker?" Sorcha asked with a frown still on her face.

Molly Weasley gave a gasp as she realised who she was standing in front of, "You're the keeper of witch magic, the chosen one," with that said she gulped and swallowed hard.

"Your promise to teach Ginevra to respect all creatures, to stand up to wrong doing, and to protect the weak, what happened to those promises?" said Sorcha as she waved a finger and Molly sat down on the floor with a bump.

"How many have you stolen their freewill from, how many will not fulfil their destiny because of you and Dumbledore?"

Molly stared at and was terrified of the old woman in front of her, she admitted she had just tried to help her two youngest to a better life; she had tried to make sure that future Weasleys did not have to live penniless as she did.

"Molly Weasley, I have to warn you that you have been trying to steal the destiny of the next chosen one. You have also tried to steal her soul mate. I'm surprised you and your two youngest are still alive for she already has the power, and she knows what you are trying to do. She may only be a child but she has all the power of the keeper of witch magic," Sorcha almost whispered.

"Hermione Granger and Harry Potter?" Molly asked almost terrified of the answer being yes.

"Oh no child it is far worse than that, no it is Hermione Potter and her husband Harry Potter that you are trying to manipulate," Sorcha said smiling at the look of sheer horror that crossed Molly's face.

"Is there anything I can do?" Molly asked as she began to worry for the future of her entire family.

"You could try to apologise and offer to help them, but I would take great care in what you say if you do. You could also try praying that Hermione does not lose her temper with you, or you might try just being a mother and staying away from Dumbledore and the Potters, it is time now for you to leave, but know that your punishment will stand, I will ask the maker to end the Weasley line." Sorcha told Molly before waving toward the door.

Five minutes after Molly left Sorcha the old witch sent a message to Hermione informing her that Molly Weasley had been warned and given punishment. If it was discovered she ignored the warning and her punishment, then her punishment would be more severe and all her children except the young witch would be childless, ending the Weasley line for ever.

Having been sent straight to her room, and appearing right in front of Harry, Hermione took a seat at the table and poured them both a fresh cup of tea. For a few minutes Hermione sat and wondered what Sorcha would do about Weasley and Dumbledore. Then she heard the old witch's voice in her head and she wondered how she had heard Sorcha's voice. But some thing the old witch had said caught Hermione's interest. She was thinking about just what Sorcha meant and just how powerful was the old witch to be able to cause the end of a family line. She knew that on the day she was twenty one she would know all she needed to know about the power of the witches magic keeper, she decided she could wait.

Having thought about it for a while Hermione pointed at one of the chairs and doing as she had seen her old friend do she waved her finger at it and simply wished for it to be out side the door. She sat up straight and asked Harry to look out side to see if the chair was out there. Harry returned after just a minute with the chair and placed it back where it belonged.

Turning to Hermione his mouth and eyes both wide open he exclaimed "Wow Hermione love, you're bloody brilliant do you know that? One day you are going to be remembered as the greatest witch to ever be born."

Later that day as they strolled around the castle grounds they were joined by Ginny and Neville, after a whispered suggestion to Hermione from Ginny they all took time to pay a visit to Potters Bottom. There they sat in comfort and discussed their futures in the world of magic and what they might become. The type of work they might decide on.

Ginny smiled brightly at the nervous boy named Neville and then boldly declared, "I think I will become a Longbottom and then Neville and I can tell our children how we met and spent time with each other in Harry Potters bottom." Three of them, two Potters and a Weasley, fell about laughing at the brilliant red colour that Neville managed to acquire after Ginny's declaration.

None of them could have known at the time that Ginny's words would become true and eventually Potters Bottom would become quite a popular haunt for students looking for somewhere to do their courting and other rather popular pass times of the older students. Mean while the four of them enjoyed the many weekends and evenings spent in peace and quiet along with the friendship they shared while at Potters Bottom.

.

A/Note just the one chapter left to post, so I hope you have enjoyed this little story.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer. As usual I don't own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.  
.

The life of Harry Potter, and Hermione's part in it.

.

Part 16.

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Cornelius Fudge was in an extremely good mood as he strutted around the office of Amelia Bones, head of the Wizarding police force. He had just handed over a large file containing evidence of the crimes of his long time rival Albus Dumbledore. The file supplied by a witch named Sorcha McGonagall was filled with sworn statements from witches and Healers about Dumbledore's nefarious meddling in the lives of his pupils, those that were soul mates who had through his illegal use of Legilimens not married their soul mate was a rather long list, a crime punishable by life in prison for just one offence, Amelia was more than certain that they could get quite a few more than just one conviction because quite a few of the witches named were family of Wizengamot members.

Cornelius gloated as Amelia growled "Dumbledore will be spending a long, long time in Azkaban for this, I doubt he will ever see freedom again, and the Wizengamot is going to be kept busy for weeks nullifying all these marriages. Not to mention the Unspeakables who will need to perform a lot of remedial memory work."

Cornelius rubbed his hands together gleefully "Shall we go and begin our interrogation of the old fraud, Madam?" he asked as he held the door open, a huge smile on his face that lit up his eyes with a look of true enthusiasm for his work. Together they left the office and made their way to the holding cells where Dumbledore sat with no idea what was about to happen to him.

... ... ...

The ancient old man looked rather ill his face unusually pale as he slowly made his way toward the grave yard in the small village. He was leaning heavily on the old wooden shepherds' crook he carried as he slowly made his way across the road. His long white beard was tucked up into his belt to keep it from dragging on the floor. Reaching the gate into the grave yard he stopped to rest for a few short minutes.

He staggered a little as he pushed his almost 187 year old bones from the old church gate he had been leaning on, and willed his old legs to take him just a little further. Just another fifteen yards would be enough to reach his goal.

The well kept tidy eighty year old grave of his second wife, and the even older graves of his mother and father stood just a few more extremely long feet in front of him, the task of reaching them seemed a daunting one.

He was quite surprised at just how much going back into the past to deliver his book had tired him; his return to the present had taken all the energy his old bones could muster, it was a side effect he had not expected, and had made no provision for. Reaching the grave he sat down on the little bench he had placed next to the grave the day they had buried his beloved and wonderful wife Hermione.

"_Hello my love, I thought I would pay you one last visit here before I come to join you in the next great adventure. I broke the law a little this morning and I came to ask you too forgive me, you see I took the book I was writing and I went back into the past to give it to you as a tenth birthday gift. I know you asked me many times why I was writing it, and well, now you know. We never really had the life together we deserved for all we did; we never had the children we wanted. So I have attempted to change the past. I took the book I was writing to you because I know that even as a ten year old you would know what to do._

_I couldn't give it to my younger self because I couldn't trust myself not to make a right royal mess of it all over again. I mean I had every chance to tell you how I felt about you all those years, but I was never quite with it in those days was I. What with Dumbledore and Snape placing thoughts into my head, not to mention Molly's constant speeches about the way things were meant to be._

_Hopefully you won't change things to much; just enough for us to be together, to have our family and to share our love the way we should have done. I think though that you would know that just a few small changes will be all that is needed for you and I to spend our entire lives together, and hopefully we will have a whole bunch of kids and be happy together. We will of course choose 'proper names' the next time around with out that coniving, well I best not say what I wish to call him, dont want you telling me off for swearing now do I._

_You know when I saw you coming out of the school as a ten year old, I felt like that little eleven year old boy sitting on the Hogwarts train for the first time once again. You had not changed very much from the memory I have of a bossy little know it all that I met on the Hogwarts express. I think I underestimated the effect seeing you looking so small and vulnerable would have on me. I had the crazy urge to stay and watch over you. I wish we could be there to watch when you begin to read the story of my life. I wonder what you will do to change things first."_

Harry sat back and listened to the wind as though he were listening for the voice of his soul mate taken from him before they were ready to part.

A slight chuckle slipped from him as he once more remembered the first time he had seen Miss Hermione Granger as she sat and lectured him and Ron Weasley on their first trip on the Hogwarts express. Other memories of times spent with her began to flood his mind, a few of the memories made him sad and small tears left his ancient eyes to work their way over the wrinkled skin and into his beard.

Through the entire evening Harry sat as he usually did, talking happily to his dead wife. The bench had a comfortable softening charm on it and each evening he sat for hours telling Hermione's headstone all about his day leaving out no detail no matter how small.

Harry was about to say his goodbyes for the night to the one true love of his life when he noticed the name on the headstone begin to disappear_._

"_It would appear you did something to change things much sooner than I expected you to my sweet," he said before the name vanished along with the headstone._

"_Yes you definitely changed something my love," he managed to say before he and the world around him also faded into nothingness_.

~#~#~#~

As their second year came to a close Harry with help from Myrtle revealed to Minerva where the chamber of secrets was and what lived in there. He was unable to open the secret entrance with out the horcrux in his head allowing him to speak parsletongue so with help from the Goblins and Merfolk several small holes were drilled into the top of the chamber from the bed of the black lake. The chamber was flooded and with the seal of the main chamber still being in place the monster within was drowned having never seen the light of day.

When Hermione woke on the last day of their second year she found her self alone in the bed, Harry was sitting at the desk writing furiously, a huge grin kept appearing on his face as he wrote. Intrigued Hermione climbed from the bed and having poured herself a cup of the tea Harry had acquired from the kitchen she asked him what it was that had him so excited.

"Just a minute sweetheart," Harry said as he finished what he was doing. With a huge grin he passed the book to her and pointed at the page he had just been copying.

Hermione read the words with her eyes growing larger as she read, she could not believe she had not read this part of the book earlier, what Harry had found was the answer to their biggest problem, and it could be solved with the help of their parents and friends. The only problem she could see was in the last lines of the page.

'_We were unable to test the ritual on a soul as it should be used, instead we used it to capture and contain a demon that had been set loose on the Yorkshire moors, we were able to summon and confine the demon until Hermione dispatched it back to where it came from'_.

"We need to show this to aunty Min," Harry said enthusiastically as he handed the copy he had made to Hermione, "she should be able to make all the arrangements, then we can get rid of all of Voldemort forever."

Hermione read his copy through checking he had not made any errors in his rush to copy it, having found nothing wrong with it she sipped her near cold tea before smiling and leaning over to give her husband a kiss she thought he well deserved. If the ritual he had found worked they could save a lot of lives that would other wise be wasted by a violent and early death at the hands of Voldemort's sick followers and the war they would start.

The day they left Hogwarts at the end of their second year 'The Book' simply faded away, their new unknown future lay in front of them and they were prepared to face it together.

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On the morning of her thirteenth birthday Hermione sat up in bed with a start. '_That had to have been one of the most vivid dreams I have ever had'_ she thought as she rubbed at her eyes. She remembered every detail, every word, the smell of the fresh cut grass mingled with the scent from many flowers, she remembered the sadness in the older Harry's eyes as he sat and talked to the grave stone of his long dead wife. The grave stone of Hermione Jane Potter her self.

Turning slightly she looked down at her sleeping husband and gasped in shock when she saw in her mind something of the future they would now share. She saw four children growing up in a loving home, a happy and contented Harry and herself sharing the love they had for each other with their children as they grew. Some how she knew they were going to have a good and happy marriage that would last for well over a hundred and fifty years, smiling at the things she was seeing in her minds eye she fell back asleep, content and happy as she wrapped herself around Harry once more.

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The part of Voldemort's soul had that had been possessing Quirrell they had destroyed with the blood potion, and thanks to the book they knew where all his evil Horcruxes were hidden. With help from Minerva, Sirius, Remus, Flitwick and a few others using the ritual to gather and contain the fragmented soul pieces, all the remaining soul fragments were destroyed by the beginning of their third year. The rest of their schooling they did as almost normal children with no further threat from Dark Lord's. They finally revealed they were married during their fourth year, which caused quite a stir among their fellow students, especially their two best friends Ginny and her boyfriend Neville.

Side by side throughout their lives in what ever they did Harry and Hermione were rarely apart for more than a few hours. At the end of their seventh year Harry and Hermione Potter left Hogwarts with the highest ever recorded scores on their exams. By the time they were twenty years old they took their first son Tobias who apart from his jet black hair looked like Hermione's dad, home to their house in Godric's hollow.

Three more children were taken home to Godrics Hollow over the next five and a half years. Harold, who was almost a carbon copy of his father Harry in everyway. Jane who like her mother had bushy brown hair and loved books and learning. And the youngest Minerva who looked remarkably like Hermione except for the raven black of her bushy hair. Of them all only Minerva had the emerald coloured eyes of Harry, the other three all had eyes that Harry thought were exact copies of the most beautiful brown eyes in the entire world.

Harry and Hermione both eventually became teachers at Hogwarts and Harry became headmaster with Hermione as his deputy, though he told all who listened that in truth he was the deputy and she was the boss. From the first day Tobias arrived home the small house in Godrics Hollow rang out with joyful laughter through four generations of Potter children, before Harry and Hermione died within two hours of each other, they had been married for one hundred and seventy two years and died surrounded by their loving family on their wedding anniversary after the celebrations of the day were over. The new witches' magic keeper after Hermione was the great granddaughter of Neville and Ginny Longbottom.

The End……


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